Bradshaw reflects on rewarding, but challenging career

After a 44-year career in education, School District 6 Superintendent Steve Bradshaw is retiring.

The last six years of his tenure here in Columbia Falls may have been some of the most memorable. He helped steer the district through a cyberattack crisis in 2017, where hackers threatened the lives of students and staff; and then this spring the school, like thousands across the country, put together a plan to teach students remotely due to the coronavirus.

So much for coasting into retirement.

“The cyber attack was the toughest aside from losing a student,” he said in an interview last week. There was real concern that the hackers meant to do harm, until investigators from the FBI determined the hackers were actually from out of the country.

The coronavirus crisis was by far the most unsual, as the school had just a few days to set up a remote learning system to teach the district’s 2,000-plus students.

“COVID was the most unusual. I feel fortunate I don’t have to plan for next year. You hate to leave when you have a mess on your hands,” he said.

Having said that, Bradshaw said the district is in good hands with incoming superintendent Dave Wick, who has decades of experience as the junior high principal before being selected by the school board for the post earlier this year..

“They’re working hard to get things figured out,” Bradhshaw noted.

Bradshahw’s career started in 1976 in Hardin, where he taught speech and psychology and was the dean of students. It was difficult, but rewarding work, he said. Most of the staff was young and enthusiastic about education.

“If you can teach in Hardin, you can teach anywhere,” he said.

He recalled one time when he stopped at a sporting goods store to buy a football T because one the teams was without one. He charged $5 to the school’s account and was immediately reprimanded by Willard Anderson, the school’s superintendent at the time.

“You charged something you didn’t have authority to charge,” Anderson told Bradshaw. Do it again and he’s been shown the proverbial door.

Bradshaw said he learned a valuable lesson about budgeting from the experience. Hardin had gone bankrupt the year before.

Anderson went on to be the finance director for the state Office of Public instruction. Bradshaw went on to teach and administer for 13 years in Red Lodge, then up to Sitka, Alaska for 19 years as a principal and superintendent there and then returned to Montana the last six years.

He said he and his wife have no plans to leave the area. His son Tyler is the public works superintendent for the city of Columbia Falls and his son Travis works for DCI Engineering in Kalispell.

One of the greatest challenges facing schools in the future has little to do with education and a lot to do with health — that’s health insurance for employees. Costs have skyrocketed for districts and will continue to do so unless something is done, Bradshaw lamented. Health insurance is now central to teacher and staff contract negotiations. It didn’t always be that way. But he noted it’s very important.

“I don’t think anyone can afford to go without health insurance,” he said.

He said despite the critics, education has gotten much better over the years. Students can now leave high school with a host of college credits under their belts with no additional costs to families.

Having said that, he said “I don’t think we’ll solve education problems until we solve poverty.”

Bradshaw said his success in Columbia Falls was due in great part to his support from the school board and that they’ve been a pleasure to work with. He’s an optimist, even with students who might get into trouble.

“I’ve never not felt good about every kid,” he said. “I’ve felt kids had value. That they were good human beings,” despite whatever circumstances they were growing up in.