Reprint from Montana Standard mtstandard.com
When Whitehall’s Hannah Nieskens learned she’d been selected as one of three finalists for the prestigious National Principal of the Year award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, she says she was “really surprised.”
But maybe she shouldn’t have been.
In April, the Montana Association of Secondary Schools Principals named Nieskens state principal of the year.
And in just three years at the helm of both Whitehall Middle School and Whitehall High School, she has brought about “a whole change in attitude about how we succeed,” says John Sullivan, superintendent of the Whitehall School District.
She’s introduced new curricula, adjusted school scheduling and staffing, updated instructional materials, created new career and technical opportunities, purchased new equipment, tapped into the Montana Digital Academy to offer online classes in subjects like oceanography and anatomy, added advanced-placement courses, and created dual-credit opportunities through a partnership with Butte’s Highlands College, among other changes.
The results, Sullivan says, are easy to see among the approximately 220 students Nieskens oversees in the two interconnected schools where she is principal. In the middle school, failing grades are down 63 percent, while student proficiency is up 45 percent in reading and 31 percent in math. In addition, office referrals for disciplinary issues have declined by some 80 percent, according to Neiskins.
But perhaps the most concrete manifestation of the progress she has helped bring about can be found in students’ average ACT scores. When Nieskens took over as principal in Whitehall three years ago, the school was ranked 99th statewide for average ACT score. A year later, the school rose to number 25. A year after that, Whitehall students had the sixth-highest average ACTs in the state.
