Susie Hedalen, Candidate For State Office Of Public Instruction
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Susie Hedalen
Candidate for Office of Public Instruction |
Susie Hedalen, Candidate for Montana State Office of Public Instruction (OPI)
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Background: Susie Hedalen,40, is a resident of Broadwater County and Superintendent of Townsend Schools. She was born in Columbia Falls, Montana and graduated from Helena High School. She attended the University of Montana. She graduated from Montana State University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, then earned a master’s degree in educational leadership. She also has a certificate in Native American Studies.
Sue and her husband Derrick live near Townsend. Derrick is owner of Green Source Electric.
Why Should Broadwater County Residents Vote for you? Susie explained in an interview her extensive experience in the field of education will help her do the OPI job well. Her first job out of college was teaching in Helena at Warren School. Her first administrative job was at Grass Range, Montana, a school of about 80 students. She was a principal in Livingston before working in the Office of Public Instruction for two and a half years as director of education where she led the Every Students Succeeds Act program, so she has experience in working in the office itself. She also served as Deputy Superintendent.
Susie said she has confidence that the voters will recognize the benefit of her coming from the teaching field. As current Superintendent of Townsend Schools, she has made effort to be transparent and inclusive with both parents, employees and the school board. She has implemented the new reading program with use of the Elementary Secondary School Relief (ESSR) funds the program, a year-long trial program was vetted by the teachers and school board to improve our students’ reading scores. “We were able to provide our teachers with the right tools to engage their students,” she explained.
Another of her accomplishments at Townsend Schools has been the teacher residency program. Townsend is one of the first schools to implement the program. Additionally, during her term, she created a pipeline of young volunteers who worked in community programs. “This summer several of our returning college students served in the summer lunch program in Heritage Park. It instills them to work in their community,” she said.
Susie is confident she has a thorough knowledge of local and federal funding streams and will be able to manage those funds to the betterment of Montana schools. Using her experience, if elected, she will create an atmosphere of flexibility which will include listening to school boards, teachers and school staff and being responsive to their needs and ideas. She will encourage use of pre-apprenticeship programs for high school students. “Participants gain skills such as being on time, being respectful all the while building relationships with future employers,” she said.
To buttress the pre-apprenticeship program Susie has built relationships with Montana Department of Labor, the Department of Education and schools such as Miles Community College.
Safety in Montana schools would be another of her program emphases. Every school has its own unique needs and ways of handling safety requiring individual, locally-based emergency plans. “In Townsend Schools, we implemented a Safety Resource Office from the Sheriff’s Department. That has worked out well for us, but every district is different,” she said.
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