Riverside schoolboy retires as superintendent

As a teen in the 1960s, Galen Hansen wandered the halls of Riverside High School thinking about math homework, locker combinations and getting a date for the prom.

Now Hansen, 60, is retiring as the district’s superintendent and worries about multimillion-dollar budgets and making sure students are learning what they should.

For seven years, Hansen has been chief of the small rural district in northern Spokane County, the same place he earned his high school diploma in 1964. He was also a teacher and director of technology and vocational programs for 20 years, all in the 1,800-student district.

“It’s been a labor of love,” Hansen said. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

Hansen is a rarity in his profession, one of perhaps just two modern-day school district superintendents in Washington to take the top post in the same place he graduated from high school.

Howard Heppner retired as superintendent of the Lynden (Wash.) School District a few years ago and graduated from there in the 1960s, a district official confirmed.

“It’s a very unique thing; especially in this day and age,” said Amy Briggs, spokeswoman for the Washington Association of School Administrators.

Hansen’s route to the job is also unique. For six of his seven years as superintendent, he shared the post with another Riverside resident, Janet Kemp, a graduate of nearby Deer Park High School.

The two agreed to take on the post as a team – sharing the six-digit salary typically paid to one superintendent. It appeared, at the time, to be the only such arrangement in the state.

“We looked at it and said we have 1985 (text)books in many cases; so there was no way we were going to take a bigger salary when kids needed new books,” Kemp said.

When Hansen and Kemp took over in 2000, the district had a $1.5 million budget deficit from declining enrollment, rising costs and other factors. Morale was low, teachers were walking off the job, and the school district was in danger of a state takeover. Lawsuits plagued the district, including one filed by the previous superintendent for breach of contract.

“We realized it was going to take more than one person to do the job,” Hansen said.

Hansen said he wasn’t looking for a career change.

“From my viewpoint, I already had the best job in the world,” as the technology director, Hansen said. “I thought about it … and I suddenly realized I didn’t have a choice.”

It was possible his job as tech director may have been eliminated, and “everything we worked so hard for would be gone.”

Hansen started with Riverside as an agricultural teacher in the early 1980s. He had taught for a few years in Lacrosse, Wash., after graduation from Washington State University. He later returned to the farm where his family raised barley, hay and cattle in the mountains south of Diamond Lake.

He and his wife, Kathie, still live on the family farm, and for several years have opened their home to troubled teen girls. At one point, the couple had 16 girls living in their home.

Upon request, Hansen took over for a teacher at Riverside High who died of cancer in the middle of the year. The job was supposed to be temporary, but Hansen never left.

He went on to help develop innovative career programs for students, including a computer repair program and an entrepreneurial program that garnered state and national attention.

The program, called REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning), provided students with hands-on business experiences, as well as several small-business incubators run by the district. The “minimall” on the school grounds is still in operation, with student-run stores like a screen printing business, stationer, and thrift-and-gift shop. The thrift store makes about $35,000 a year.

“It’s been hard to keep those things with the WASL” and the continued focus on high-stakes testing and student achievement, Hansen said. “But we’re not letting them go.”

The district’s computer “techie” program has received accolades. Currently, students help manage the district’s computer information systems, and supply all computers from refurbished models.

“He is just an innovative man; his brain is always ticking and creating ideas,” said Talana Mielke, director of career and technical education for Riverside. “He has done miracles for our district; he will be hard to replace.”

Hansen’s peers said he is known for his accessibility. Most people in the Riverside community – which is not even a town, and has little industry – know they can dial his home telephone number.

“He will be late for meetings because a parent walked in, and he is going to listen to what a parent says before going to any meeting,” Kemp said. “He just always considered himself a public servant; he is a genuine, caring person.”

For the first few years, Hansen and Kemp would spend each night on the phone, usually around midnight – sharing strategies and debriefing.

“We both had strengths and we both had weaknesses and it gave us the ability to both make important decisions.”

The first week on the job, they trimmed more than $600,000 from the budget.

“We all watched him struggle with that,” Mielke said. “He took that very personally; he knew that every dollar he cut was a person’s livelihood.”

Now, Hansen says the district is in the black. Bonds will be paid off this year, and the district’s fund balance – better known as a rainy-day fund – is one of the highest in Spokane County, compared with the district’s overall budget.

Despite tense negotiations over teacher pay this summer – staff picketed alongside the highway for several days – the district appears to be doing fine, and Hansen says it’s time for him to move on, spending more time with his family. Kemp stepped down last year and returned to her job as principal of the district’s home-school cooperative.

“The challenges and the goals were dynamic; it was a growing experience even in the hard times,” Hansen said. “But the bottom line is that it’s all about what’s best for the kids.”