School District 6 board race: Bruce Crockett

Bruce Crockett is a relative newcomer to the Flathead Valley, having lived in Columbia Falls for the past two and a half years. Crockett, 35, is the lead pastor of the new Gateway Church in Columbia Falls, which holds its services at the Teakettle community Building on Sundays.

Crockett and his wife, Jessica, have four children, three of them school-aged, and a 4-year-old, who will attend school soon. He has a fourth grader, a fifth grader at Glacier Gateway Elementary and an eighth grader at the junior high. He also has a foster child.

Crockett said he is running for school board because he is interested in the education of his children and he wants to help out the community.

Since he moved here from Memphis, Tennessee, he’s become a volunteer with North Valley Search and Rescue, the Columbia Falls Little Guy wrestling program and the youth basketball programs.

He graduated from Blue Mountain College, a small Baptist College in Mississippi, in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree, has a master’s in divinity degree from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate in ministry from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

He served as a founding board member with Turning Point Pregnancy Center in Scottsboro, Alabama and was a student minister for over 13 years working with junior and high schools prior to coming to Montana.

Crockett said he has been attending the school planning meeting about the elementary school situation in Columbia Falls, but he does not yet have a strong opinion on the issue. He said that he is worried about an apparent lack of public interest on the issue.

“I have a decent handle on our elementary needs from attending the planning meetings. I am not strongly for or against it, but I understand the issues the schools are facing,” he said. “My biggest concern is people not attending the meetings. Is the school doing a good enough job getting the word out? We are talking $30 million, you think there would be more public interest in that.”

Crockett said he is in favor of the construction of a new Boys and Girls Club facility in Columbia Falls, but he is not sure if it should be on school property.

“I think there is a need for the building and I don’t mind them using the land if the school is not planning to,” he said. “From what I hear, the Boys and Girls Club has already raised a lot of money for the project. The facility they are in now at Glacier Gateway is pretty small for how many kids they serve, so I think a new facility could really help our community, but I don’t know enough of the details to be truly for or against it being on school property.”

As far as arming school employees, Crockett said he is in favor of the idea, with proper training.

“I would be for arming people in the school, but I don’t think it should just be anybody. I think they would have to go through a lot of specific training,” he said.