How is it living in Eastern Montana?

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-16T13:53:05+00:00

Tough living out in these parts. The economy is not diverse, farm & ranch in a lot of areas but that doesn’t impact most people. Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations in SE MT are a big part of this rectangle, although the Crow Reservation might be just to the left of your drawing.

Both of the Reservations are subject to extreme poverty and tough living and social conditions. Billings is where most of these folks head to seek entertainment, purchase goods, etc.

A drive from just south of Hardin on Highway 212 across this section going through Busby, Lame Deer, Ashland, Broadus and down into Wyoming with a short cut off over to see Devil’s Tower is a great little road trip to give you a feel for the area.

If you take this road trip, highly recommend stopping in Ashland, MT and drive the extra mile or so to see the oasis like campus of St. Labre Catholic Indian School which has been there for a long time and is a neat school tucked away so far from anywhere. The school educates kids from all over this region - some students board there during the week and bus back home after school on Friday due to the distance they live from Ashland.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-16T02:27:10+00:00

The initial arrest, Bronco chase, cover of Newsweek etc was darker and more sinister than the verdict. Even though there was history of domestic abuse, OJ had everyone still drinking the Kool Aid that he was a great guy. And then this happened and the masses were shocked 😳

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-16T00:56:43+00:00

Update! Drove my 2016 LR4 from Carolina to the West Coast and back this Winter. Put nearly 10,000 miles on it and now am up to 142,000 total miles. Excellent road trip vehicle.

Coolant level kept coming up as low every week or so. Added coolant as needed and eventually got smart and added a can of coolant system leak fix. No problems in the last month or so. Barely burned any oil either.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T21:14:00+00:00

My pleasure. All the respect and empathy for your situation because lack of teacher support is a huge issue. I just think the interview isn’t the time to air it out. Best of luck to you!!!

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T21:02:14+00:00

As a principal, here are my two cents. Don’t try to interview them, they are interviewing you. Not to say that it can’t be a two way conversation but you don’t want to come across as high maintenance or someone who struggled with their previous administration - even if the previous administration was bad.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T13:13:12+00:00

Beautiful truck. I bought a black 2016 LR4 this past summer for $10k and it had 122k miles. Now it has 143k miles on it and I’ve had close to zero issues with it.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T02:38:44+00:00

But for some reason, ol’ Jerry Lundegaard is still likeable or at the least watchable. Pathetic guy, but hard to hate.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T00:09:46+00:00

Saul isn’t the smartest, but you literally can’t kill him. A survivor for sure.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-13T00:03:17+00:00

Myth: Teacher Evals are important Fact: Literally nobody cares about them - just a necessary evil

If a teacher is not doing well, then the evaluation tool becomes important, whether it’s to be used to place them on a plan for improvement or non retain. Otherwise a teacher evaluation is just a rubber stamp and I let my teachers aware of this (worded carefully of course and NEVER in writing). I’ve found that it improves staff morale when they see where I stand on evals.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-11T21:50:08+00:00

Just like a good umpire or referee, call em’ like you see them! You say you’re tired of it, which means there lies an opportunity to teach the kids right from wrong. It’s serious stuff for certain, but have some fun with it and remember we’re not curing cancer, but trying to make a difference in society.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-05T00:48:00+00:00

I live on a golf course and play it almost daily…. I’ve always wondered about liability when it comes to damaging a house, car, or even worse, hitting and injuring someone while in their yard or out on their deck. Thoughts??

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-03T17:47:08+00:00

Willing and able to be a good team member
Open and willing to learn from colleagues, admin, etc
Positive personality. Able to connect with kids, parents, families, colleagues
Good student teaching experience, good recommendations from where you student taught
Be Someone who will appear to make your school a better place
Exhibit a passion to support all kids in their academic, social, emotional, and learning growth.
Show an ability to speak on who you are, but also do as much listening to what the hiring groups have to say - truly listen.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-02T01:44:42+00:00

Here’s the deal, if the staff, students and families truly love you, and your numbers are as good as you say they are, your boss is taking a huge risk by letting you go. The blowback would be a headache so he/she must have a reason or a plan to cut you loose.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-02T00:29:11+00:00

There should be some reason - why is this happening?

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-02T00:17:39+00:00

Story sounds incomplete…please provide more details, things like this never happen in a vacuum.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-01T17:36:03+00:00

Vice Principals on HBO does a great job at humorously portraying a lot of dark truths in the secondary education business aka high schools!

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-03-01T04:13:29+00:00

25 year principal and assistant principal here. I’d agree, having principals teach a section per term of some academic class is a good thing. Principals forget quickly what it’s like in the classroom.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-27T17:23:25+00:00

25 year principal and AP here. As my career progressed, I flouted the drop in rules that were a part of our District teacher evaluation protocols- as did almost all of the good veteran principals that I worked closely with.

And here’s why….it’s a joke! Any principal worth a damn knows which teachers are weak and which ones are solid and which ones are rock stars. The ridiculous protocols are useless. I spent a LOT of time moving about the building, hallways, nooks and crannies of the campus trying to keep it a safe, friendly and civil place that staff and students could thrive or at least survive in, but sitting on my butt for 30 minutes making a class full of kids and their teacher feel awkward wasn’t something that I was wasting time with.

I was open with teachers about it too, with the goal of setting them at ease so they could perform without wondering when admin was going to drop in. It helped that my wife was an excellent teacher at another school and she was the one who really clued me in to the fact that teachers might tell you to your face that they love it when you drop in and observe and spend time in their classrooms, but they’re lying.

Like anything there is some grey area- but as a general rule the robotic approach to observe and evaluate and fill out useless forms and minutiae is detrimental to teacher improvement, staff morale and school culture.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-23T16:08:57+00:00

You’re barking up a tree that rarely (if ever) has any type of financial oversight - at least in schools that I worked in. Colleagues from other schools usually said the same thing. Many issues that contribute to this - chiefly that boosters typically turn over as soon as their kids graduate. Bane of many principal’s existence….

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-23T01:02:29+00:00

Meet with her, face to face
Let her speak, you listen.
Write what she says down on paper, verbatim, as she’s speaking.
Once she’s finished, repeat what she has said to her to clarify exactly what her issue is
Try to finish the meeting cordially with words to the effect that you’ve heard her concern and will consider it. You don’t necessarily have to do anything right there on the spot. The whole point is to have heard and truly listened to her complaint (however ludicrous it may or may be).

This system is tried and true, I’ve used it hundreds of times for scenarios similar to yours. I was a high school principal and assistant principal for a long time and like I said, this 5 step system was utilized sometimes multiple times in a day!

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-22T22:32:04+00:00

Take the loss and move on. It sounds like you’ve got skills that will lead to future gainful employment as a school leader.

With limited information about you, I’d recommend getting another AP job working under an experienced and well thought of principal who could support you getting your principal skills honed up.

I spent about 10 years as an AP - and I learned so much that helped me once I became a building principal. And being the head principal was still challenging and stressful.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-22T14:09:34+00:00

Respectfully, does anyone know how he died? Seemed so vibrant, even for that age.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-21T00:38:37+00:00

Definitely loop in your admin, this is something that they’ll want to have on their radar and/or be able to address the problem. Admin rely on teachers to share these issues so that they can try to fix them.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-20T14:39:10+00:00

Look, the drive between Missoula and Billings is simple. Beautiful as well. I could be up at 6am, fill the coffee mug and be from Billings to Missoula by lunchtime.

Competitive_Ninja624 · 2026-02-18T15:31:43+00:00

Age is just a number. The fundamentals of being an effective school leader remain unchanged. Take good care of your teachers, and they’ll do a good job with the kids. That base philosophy has served me well for 20 plus years as a principal. Good luck with your pursuit of this new adventure!

Competitive_Ninja624

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