Couple retires from Bigfork Schools

Editor’s note: This is the final part of a series the Bigfork Eagle has done to highlight the careers of seven staff members retiring from the Bigfork School District at the end of the 2011-12 school year. The Eagle ran a different article each week featuring a different retiring staff member and those can be found on our website, www.bigforkeagle.com.

With nearly half a century of educating Bigfork’s children between the two of them, Mike and Jackie Boshka are retiring at the end of this school year. Jackie was principal of Bigfork Elementary and Middle School up until this year when she became the curriculum director, and Mike teaches senior level English and Russian language at Bigfork High School.

Mike has been with the district for 24 years and Jackie has been here for 19 years. Although retiring wasn’t necessarily a surprise announcement, it wasn’t really planned in advance for the couple. Mike decided now was the time when he found out there would be changes to his class load.

“She wasn’t going to let me retire while she worked,” Mike said.

“It opens up the door for excitement if we both can do things,” Jackie added.

Jackie switched from principal to curriculum director because she had a lot of experience in creating curriculums, so her current responsibilities are essentially the same but with less time with students and more time working with teachers to improve their lessons.

“Professionally, the greatest challenge is making school relevant to kids and we’ve done so many things to try to get them excited and to identify their passions and pursue their interests,” Jackie said. “It’s hard with everything we’re supposed to do to make sure their education is meaningful. Individualizing is a great challenge.”

During their time at the Bigfork Schools each played an integral role in forming the school system of today.

Mike helped start the senior projects at Bigfork High School, which is now a requirement for graduation. Jackie played a major role in remodeling the elementary and middle school building.

“The school turned out nice and the town should be proud of the remodeling of the elementary and middle school,” Jackie said. “The teachers are outstanding and have been focused on high achievement and high standards of behavior and I think the schools are in pretty good shape, so I’m proud of that, we really have the cream of the crop.”

Both of them said their careers were filled with memorable moments. Mike recalled one of his Russian students who had an inoperable brain tumor and would read to children while she was in the hospital. She was later offered money from the Make A Wish Foundation, but then donated the money to a 9-11 orphan fund for children who lost their parents in the twin towers.

Jackie noted that the first thing she did as principal was order 40 Macintosh computers for the school’s first computer lab and the final thing she did as principal last year was order 20 iPads for the kindergarteners.

“It’s been fun watching the development of technology,” Jackie said. “But, I’m really sad that the art and music programs have been cut over the years, that’s not a good change that I’ve seen.”

One of the biggest changes the couple witnessed during their careers was watching their children grow up as they attended school here. Jackie said they enjoyed getting to know their children’s friends well.

“It was fun being able to ask if they had homework, and if they said no we could say ‘yes you do,’” Mike said.

Mike said his Russian students weren’t too happy with his retirement since it means they won’t be able to continue learning to speak Russian and that the teachers didn’t want to see Jackie go, but both were congratulated on making the move.

“I will miss the students and the teachers and I’m grateful to Bigfork for all the support they’ve given the elementary school,” Jackie said. “We hope to stay really busy, being principle is time consuming, so it’s going to be a whole new world.”