School District 6 election: Michael Nicosia

Michael Nicosia is no stranger to School District 6. He was superintendent for 19 years after a distinguished career fighting for state funding for schools and overseeing the construction of the junior high school. Nicosia said he’s running for school board because he wants to give back to the school and the community.

“I really believe we’re called to serve,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve done enough over the years.”

He retired as superintendent in 2014 and currently volunteers on the city-county health board. In addition to being superintendent, he’s also been a member of the North Valley Hospital Board.

As a board member, he wants to make school a positive experience for today’s youth.

“The experience we have in school determines who we are and large part of our destiny,” he said. “I want the best possible experience for each and every kid.”

He notes that students in elementary schools have a great enthusiasm for school, but that fades for many in junior high and high school. He wants to explore ways to keep that enthusiasm alive in the later grades, particularly with young males, who, in recent years, are doing less and less in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. He suspects that if one takes a hard look at today’s honor students in Columbia Falls, one would find that most of them are young women, not young men.

Schools are good at implementing new programs.

“I’m not sure we do a good job of monitoring them,” he said. “You have to stay on top of them, and when changes need to be made, you have to make changes.”

Nicosia came to Montana on a football scholarship for the University of Montana in 1967. He received is bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UM and his superintendent’s certification from Montana State University. He has a doctorate in education from Kennedy Western. His wife, Susan, is the city manager and their three children, all grown now, graduated from Columbia Falls. He grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He started his school administrative career in Wibaux. He was the high school principal for four years and the superintendent for five years. He moved to Frenchtown and was superintendent for six years prior to his tenure at Columbia Falls.

Nicosia said he figures he sat in 750 board meetings over his career in Columbia Falls.

During his tenure, he helped acquire the land and get the bond passed to build a new junior high off Talbott Road in the early 2000s. He brings that same experience to the table as the school district could see another expansion project in the next year at the elementary level.

He had some mixed feelings on donating school land for a community center and Boys and Girls Club. He noted it was a good program, but it’s also tough to give land away, since the school, at this point, isn’t sure what its future needs might be. He noted that enrollment is actually down in Columbia Falls overall. It peaked at 2,700 when he was superintendent.

On the subject of training and arming some teachers, he noted he worked to bring a school resource officer — an armed policeman — to the district when he was superintendent.

“In response to the frequency of school incidents, I did work with the city and county to fund the first school resource officer for our district. It was a great comfort having that officer in our buildings. While I am not sure that arming individuals who are not trained to the level of a law enforcement officer is a good idea, as a lot can go wrong in a hurry; I would be in favor of increasing the presence of school resource officers or other comprehensively trained professionals,” he said.

His greater focus is on education and making school positive experience for students.

“Education makes a difference,” he said. “The better it is, the bigger the difference it makes.”