Wick will be traveling the country, but plans to return
Principal Dave Wick will be taking a year off to be the president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
After 23 years at the helm of Columbia Falls Junior High, Dave Wick is saying good-bye — but only for a year. He will be considered a principal on special assignment, as the takes the helm of as the president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, an advocacy group with about 16,000 members across the United States.
But Wick notes he is not retiring from School District 6, nor is he moving from Montana. While the president post means he’ll be on the road about 100 days in the coming year, he fully intends to return to the district after his one-year tenure is up.
After that, Wick said he plans to either to return as principal or potentially apply for the superintendent’s position of School District 6, as current superintendent Steve Bradshaw is expected to retire.
As president of the principal association, he’ll travel to conferences and events and give sessions as a keynote speaker. Wick is highly regarded as a principal. In 2012 he was named the 2012 National Distinguished Principal for Montana. In 2016, he was named vice president of the principal association.
He said his year spent with the organization is a “great learning experience.”
He’s only the third Montana principal to hold the post of president.
Wick started his career in Columbia Falls in 1997 and saw the construction of the new building back in 2000.
“I love this place. I’ve been here since the day it was built,” he said. He credits the junior high staff for his success and said that keeping one’s humility is a big part of being successful.
At the end of the school year this year he gave the outgoing eighth graders 12 points for successful living.
They are:
- Show up. You have to be there when people need you.
- Work hard
- Listen to others
- Be a continual learner
- Respect others no matter what their position
- Be willing to give to others
- Say you’re sorry and accept your own mistakes
- Take risks
- Put people first
- Have a sense of humor
- Be thankful
- Show grace — do what’s right, not necessarily easy.
Those certainly sound like words to live by.