Editor's note: After press, the Pathfinder learned Stetson Spooner decided to not take the superintendent position offered to him by the Seeley Lake Elementary School Board. An update will be provided next week regarding the candidate who took the position — Christina Hartmann from Townsend Public Schools — according to the school's attorney.
The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board voted unanimously to hire Stetson Spooner as the new superintendent and principal of Seeley Lake Elementary School.
The decision came after a review of four candidates’ background checks and paper applications in executive meetings early last week, and after three public candidate interview sessions on April 18.
Spooner has been an athletic director in the Mullan School District in Idaho for 13 years and served as acting principal when needed. Originally from Kalispell, Spooner obtained a master’s degree at the University of Idaho, which included school district finance and budgeting courses and educational leadership courses for superintendent and principal roles. In his current position as athletic director, Spooner has helped principals in his district with budget planning and discipline.
School Board President Doc Welter said there was one other candidate — Christina Hartmann, kindergarten through fifth grade principal in the Townsend School District — with true administrative experience. An athletic director is a quasi-administrative role, Welter said, and with that experience the board thought Spooner would be good for the school.
“He was well-liked by everyone that was contacted and highly recommended,” Welter said. The board contacted colleagues and a superintendent that Spooner worked with in Mullan.
At the public interview, the board asked questions on how Spooner would handle teacher recruitment, how he would gain approval for voted levies, what type of relationship he sees himself having with the board, his communication methods with people in the district, ways he would monitor student achievement, his experience in more specific principal duties and with the four-day school week.
More often than not, Spooner’s responses came back to a theme of collaboration — with staff, the board and students.
“I believe that one of my best skills is just meeting people and being somebody that they’d like to talk to. And I pride myself on that,” Spooner said. “I’m your backbone in the halls, I’m your backbone in the brick and mortar setting. I just want to be part of your team,” he continued.
Spooner said the current superintendent of the Mullan School District is very against the four-day school week and the district has not adopted that schedule. But as the athletic director (AD) of a co-op football team — one that includes a variety of districts — he takes into account both versions of the school week when making game schedules. Spooner said having Fridays off has made it easier for some schools to play against each other that might otherwise not have been able to. In some cases, kids coming from smaller schools are able to utilize the resources of larger schools, like lights on a football field, Spooner said.
Bringing up a different district Spooner has been involved with in his athletic director role, the St. Regis School District, he said the switch to a four-day week has been good overall. Spooner said the AD there has said he wished they had a bit more time with the students, but the level of engagement and improvement in attendance has been worth it, and they don’t plan on moving away from the schedule any time soon.
Between now and Spooner’s anticipated start date of July 1, current Seeley Lake Elementary School Superintendent Josh Gibbs and Business Manager Heather Mincey will reach out to Spooner and offer assistance and when July rolls around, he’ll be ready to hit the ground running, Welter said.
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