Rick Goble had already been eyeing the Chehalis School District’s job posting for director of student achievement, but after he received emails from multiple colleagues the day the application went live encouraging him to apply, Goble knew he had to give it a shot.
“I was already thinking about it, but hearing that from my peers definitely pushed me over the edge,” he said.
He learned he got the job last week on his birthday.
Goble will officially start as the student achievement director on July 1. In the meantime, former assistant superintendent Brian Fox is helping Goble transition into the new position.
“Hopefully, it'll keep the momentum. And not that Rick is incapable by any means, but it's a new position, so for us to work together a bit, that hopefully will prevent us from having any lag time or losing the momentum that we've got in the district,” Fox said. “And really, we've got momentum because the teachers are doing their work and the (Student Achievement Initiative) work and administrators are doing the work and the staff are doing their work. But for this role to stay on top of all of that also will help keep it moving along.”
Fox, who started as assistant superintendent shortly after Christine Maloney became superintendent in the spring of 2020, left that position earlier this month after he decided to return to teaching after 30 years working in school administration.
He officially started his new job teaching K-5 art at an elementary school in the Orting School District on March 1.
“When I went into administration in 1992, I remember saying, ‘I will come back to teaching before I end my career,’ so I've come back to teach,” he said.
The Chehalis School District’s director of teaching and learning, Trisha Smith, stepped into the assistant superintendent position when Fox started his new teaching job.
With Smith incorporating some elements of her formal role into her new position, Maloney decided to reimagine the teaching and learning position and give it a new name: director of student achievement.
The position shares priorities with the Student Achievement Initiative (SAI), which was launched in partnership with the Chehalis Foundation and Centralia College in 2013 with the goal of increasing the percentage of Chehalis students going on to earn certifications and college degrees. But the position is separate from the SAI.
“It really has a lot of thought that was put into it, so I'm appreciative of that,” Goble said of the new position. “It definitely is very logical. And so the different categories and job duties that I have are directly related to students achieving in the classroom.”
Goble is currently the assistant principal and Career and Technical Education (CTE) program director at W.F. West.
While he is already preparing to transition into his new role, he said he’s “still very focused on the job that I'm doing right now. I still feel like this is very important work as well. I'm giving 100% to what I'm still doing.”
This year marks Goble’s eighth at the Chehalis School District. Prior to joining the district, he taught for 10 years in the Morton School District, served as the high school principal in Winlock and held an administrative position in Tumwater. He also holds a state certificate in executive leadership.
“I really feel like all of my experiences, through my education, working in education, have really kind of prepared me for this role. I've done a lot of different things and worked in different places, worked with different communities, and I'm just super excited to be here in Chehalis and to be able to work with our students and our community,” he said.
Reflecting on his time in the Chehalis School District, Fox said he was proud of how teachers and staff supported learning initiatives like the district’s CTE program and the Student Achievement Initiative through the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“It's been interesting to be here during COVID years. Because to a degree, I think that our success as a district has been to keep the Student Achievement Initiative alive during the most difficult and challenging time any of us can imagine. And keep it forefront in our mind, even though most of our day is spent on close contact tracing, and even masking and policies and all the health stuff. So I think something that I'm pleased with, also, is that our teachers have kept the focus on learning and teaching even during some of the most difficult times in our society,” he said.
When asked what his hopes are for the Chehalis School District moving forward, Fox said he hopes to see the success that the district has had with the SAI replicated in other school districts and to see Chehalis teachers and staff receive credit for the work they’ve done to promote student achievement.
“This is something that I'm hoping will continue to get the credit that it deserves. I'm hoping that the staff who are actually doing the work get the credit that they deserve,” he said, later adding, “That’s my hope for Chehalis, that those people that are doing that work every single day get some credit for the hard work they’ve been doing.”
