Caring leadership
During a fire drill Tuesday, new University High School Principal Daryl Hart swept through the halls of the building like he’d been doing it for years. He knows many of the faces of his 1,800 students with the same familiarity. Weaving in and out of a sea of bodies, Hart does his best to remember as many names as he can, and he doesn’t mind if the students shout the nickname they created for him.
“It was between ‘Big D’ and ‘Heavy D,’ ” said Kellen Lewis, the school’s student body president. But neither of those seemed like the right fit. “So he let us call him D.H. He’s pretty cool.”
Hart has only been at U-Hi a little less than three months, and already he’s a Titan through and through, bleeding crimson and gold.
“It feels like he has been here for so long,” said junior Kelsey Higley, 16. “I’ve seen him at every volleyball game so far this year. To me, that really shows he cares.”
Hart has been a principal for 27 years, 17 of those as a high school principal. He came to University this year from Monroe (Wash.) High School, where he was principal for two years.
Hart got his start in education as a coach and teacher,after graduating from the University of Idaho. His first job was in Buhl, Idaho, coaching basketball and teaching social sciences.
“I thought about being an attorney,” Hart said. “But my love is hoops, and I wanted to be a coach.”
As a senior at a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hart met Dan Fitzgerald, former Gonzaga University men’s basketball coach. It was then that his love of basketball and teaching was discovered.
Before he was a college basketball coach, Fitzgerald was Hart’s high school coach and English teacher.
“He was a real big influence in my life,” Hart said. “He was very intense, but you always knew he cared about you. He had a very strong desire for us to succeed.”
Hart said he has tried to bring that influence into his own methods of education, helping students carve out their niche to succeed in life whenever possible.
“There’s something for every student; our job is to help them find it,” Hart said.
Hart switched from teaching to administration by default in 1979, when the principal at Post Falls Junior High School had quadruple bypass surgery. He was working as an assistant principal there part time, while working on a master’s degree at the University of Idaho. He was only in his late 20s when he took the reins.
“I really came into it by accident, and I remember thinking, I can do this,” Hart said. “Then I realized I really enjoyed being the boss.”
He gave up teaching and coaching, and went on to work as principal at Kettle Falls High School in the early 1980s, and then at two schools in Nevada before returning to the Pacific Northwest in 1996 to run a middle school in Snohomish, Wash. He took over as principal of Monroe High School in 2002.
“He’s had very good life experiences as a principal,” said Kevin Frandsen, teacher and part-time administrator at U-Hi. “I think he’s a very competent, intelligent leader, who is very supportive of the administrative team, staff and students. But he’s not embarrassed to make those tough decisions that need to be made.”
“And he’ll go out of his way in his concern for the students,” Frandsen added.
On the first day of school, a freshman came up to Hart crying. She couldn’t find her classroom.
“He just took her hand and said, ‘I’ll walk you to class,’ ” Frandsen said. “That says a lot.”
When he’s not in the halls talking with students, you might find Hart on the sidelines of some sporting event. He admits to being an avid Seahawks fan, and any kind game of basketball, from pee wee to pros.
“I’m very competitive,” Hart said. “There’s nothing like a packed gym on game night.”
He’s getting ready for the first girls’ varsity basketball game in the coming months, when U-Hi goes up against Snohomish High School, his old stomping grounds.
“When I found that out we were playing them, I said, ‘Oh man’ ” Hart said. “I know a lot of those (Snohomish) kids, and I like them, but I want to beat them. You bet.”