Baldwin assumes superintendency at Arlee

Arlee Joint School District 8 has a new superintendent for the 2018-19 school year, and he is certainly familiar with the small-school scene.

Jim Baldwin brings in a resume that shows that all but two of his 41 years in educating youth have been in Montana. He has served as superintendent in various schools for the last 24 years, most recently in Poplar.

Previously, Baldwin held the top position in the district in Alberton for 15 years (1998 to 2013), and also was superintendent at Choteau for one year.

Baldwin’s earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education, and his first job was teaching kindergarten in Berthold, N.D. After one year there, he moved west to Montana, and taught PE and driver’s training. Balwin got into administration 18 years into his career in education.

Four years ago, Baldwin contemplated retiring from teaching in Montana, and relocated to St. John, Wash. After one year there at superintendent, Baldwin and his wife Carol chose to return to the Big Sky State due his father’s failing health.

Baldwin had the opportunity to assume the superintendent’s role in Poplar to be closer to family. “It was a good fit for me,” he said.

And getting back to the Mission Valley meant being less than an hour away from the Jim and Carol’s two children and four grandchildren in Missoula, plus a great-grandchild. The Baldwins own a home there, and they’re been married for 43 years.

Their daughter is a teacher at St. Ignatius, and Jim and Carol are Montana Grizzlies football season ticket holders.

“It’s good to be back in western Montana,” Baldwin said. “I’ve worked in rural schools all my life. It’s a really good fit (at Arlee) … I made up my mind that if I couldn’t find something close to Missoula, I was going to retire.”

BEFORE GETTING into school administration, Baldwin was a teacher as well as a coach. His history includes nine years at Wolf Point, where they won a state championship. He has served on the Montana High School Association board of directors.

“I’ve been pretty active in athletics and activities in all my years (in education),” Baldwin said, and he’s been an athletic/activities director for 27 of his years in education.

He got out of coaching in 1994, but later was the girls’ head basketball coach in Alberton for four years. “It was nice to get back into it,” he said.

Baldwin spoke about the responsibilities of a being a small school district superintendent.

“You should be much more visible to your staff and your students, and go to as many activities as you can,” he said, and being supportive to school principals and their staff is important.

There will be about 450 students in the Arlee district for the 2018-19 school year. In activities, he said Arlee is “facing a move in another year to Class B, except for football. That would be for the two-year cycle from 2019-20 through 2020-21.

ARLEE IS one of the Montana districts that adheres to a four-day, Monday through Thursday school week. Baldwin was one of the first superintendents in Montana to implement the four-day week, that taking place in Alberton several years ago.

Baldwin was asked to address the option of going to a four-day school week in Alberton. That school district now has the four-day scenario.

“I’m a strong proponent of it,” Baldwin said of the four-day school week. “I think it has some good attributes. But it’s not whether you have a four-day or five-day, it’s how the curriculum is being presented. There are a lot of schools who have gone to it.

“What I like most about it is for activities and athletics. You do your best to schedule on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday.”

That keeps students, and teachers who are coaches, in the classroom more consistently.

BALDWIN IS excited about athletics and other activities in Arlee, in light of the school’s back-to-back boys’ basketball state championships in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

“It’s a feather in anybody’s hat. It’s something you’re very proud of,” he said. “Coach (Zanen) Pitts has done a great job with these kids. They’re played a lot of summer ball.”

Baldwin agrees that this could his “last best place” in education in Arlee.

“I’m taking it one year at a time,” he said. “I still enjoy working and enjoy the kids and working with staff.”

He and Carol worked through Baldwin’s heart attack and two-stent surgery about five years ago, and he still runs 20 to 25 miles a week. “It makes you appreciate life more,” he said.

And Baldwin will be “on the run” as superintendent of Arlee Joint School District 8.