Sam White came from a teaching background. He said he taught at an alternative school in Indiana, where he is originally from. Then he moved to Tacoma and taught AP psychology and world history.
White said he had 180 kids in Tacoma at a school with 1900 kids in it.
“It was in the international district,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”
But, White wanted to be an administrator and he didn’t want to start that journey at a school with 1900 kids in it. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and his wife got laid off from her job – so she spent a lot of time at home with their kids because they couldn’t go to school either.
“I think we just kind of realized that we wanted a slower pace of life, and to be able to spend time with our kids and not feel like we were just rushing around all the time,” he said.
So the two of them started looking at smaller school in Alaska and they found Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island.
“I finished my admin internship there and I was really lucky that my principal there is now the superintendent in Sitka, so I learned a ton from her,” he said.
There weren’t any administrative jobs open in Thorne Bay, or the family likely would have stayed. There was one in Nikiski, so the family picked up and moved to Southcentral Alaska.
But, they drove through Haines on their way. It was the Fourth of July in 2023.
“We got to hang out and check out the town and kind of see, you know, community events and things like that. It was really cool, it was kind of that perfect – it’s not too small, it’s not too big, it’s just right,” he said.
White has a son in the third grade and a daughter in the sixth grade. He said another draw is that the Haines Borough school district has a lot of programs for a relatively small school in Southeast Alaska and he wants his children to have access to that.
Another reason he took the job is that Principal Lily Boron and Superintendent Roy Getchell have a good reputation.
“Everybody was like ‘oh Lily and Roy are awesome to work for, you’ll grow a lot professionally” he said. And so far, he said that statement has been true. He feels well supported and that the staff and students have been welcoming.
In Nikiski, White said a lot of his job involved discipline. “That was basically my whole entire day,” he said.
He is enjoying having more variety in his current role as assistant principal of the Haines schools.
“I work on our grants and our test coordination. I do that, I do a little bit of discipline and I get to actually get into classrooms now which is really cool,” he said.
One thing he’d like to work on is pulling more community partners into the school.
“We have all of these local experts and I’d like to get them into the building,” he said.
Outside of school, he said his family is enjoying doing a lot of hiking – though it’s a bit tricky with their 2-year-old. He has also gotten the chance to go deer hunting and mushroom picking and is enjoying learning more about living in the Chilkat Valley.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an editing error.