Haines Superintendent Roy Getchell announced in early February that a hiring committee has chosen to promote assistant principal Sam White at the end of the school year.
White, who has a teaching background in psychology and history, taught in Indiana and Washington State before deciding that he wanted to become an administrator.
In a previous interview, he said he and his family moved to Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island for his administrative internship and then spent a year in Nikiski in 2023. He joined the Haines Borough School District in 2024.
He will replace current principal Lilly Boron, who will be the district’s next superintendent.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Question: What was the first thing you did to celebrate?
Answer: I think I just roasted marshmallows with my kids. I’ve been kind of thinking about it – I think they posted [the job] before Christmas break, so at that point, too, it was just a lot of relief, too. So, yeah, it was nice to just chill and hang out with my family.
What made you decide to apply for the principal’s position?
I came from a pretty rough household. We didn’t have a lot of resources. A lot of times we didn’t have electricity or running water. I just kind of started to follow in my parents’ footsteps, so I started to not make great choices in high school. But then I was adopted when I was 15. So, I was talking in my interview about how, you know, she just put a lot of time and energy into me. It was unconditional. After being with her for a while, I started to kind of see the good in myself and the good in the people around me.
When I got a little bit older, I started working in construction and by that time, I was super credit deficient. I wasn’t going to graduate on time, so I wanted to drop out so I could work. And she was like, “well, you can do that, but you have to get your GED.” So I got my GED, and I was just telling the teachers and other people on the panel — you don’t see it right away when you put the time and effort into kids. But, you know, some of the best parts of me I got from her. So that long answer is: I knew I wanted to help kids. I think I always wanted to be a principal, and this is a really great place, so everything just kind of came together.
Do the kids here know you got your GED?
I think that the parents know that were in the interview. That is something that I try to connect with kids because, it wasn’t like some straight linear path. I had to pay more for college because I couldn’t get scholarships. If I could go back in time and be adopted earlier and be in a better environment to make better choices — I absolutely would have gone to college right after high school, but with the environment I was in, that’s just kind of how it worked out.
How have those past experiences fueled what you would like to do here in Haines as the principal?
I think I’m super fortunate to be in a really well-running school. Roy [Getchell] and Lilly [Boron] really set me up for success. Just trying to increase the place-based education, outdoor education, restorative practices. If I would have grown up in an environment where there was outdoor-ed, place-based education and all of the support that kids have in school, I think I would have done a lot better.
What have parents told you that they’d like to see from the district that you’re interested in tackling?
Increased communication, but I think we do a really good job of that as it is. So, I just think trying to continue to get feedback and refine that, to meet parents where they’re at communication-wise.
Is there anything that surprised you about living in Haines or working in the school district that you’re interested in exploring more?
I think one thing that was kind of surprising is: it’s not a huge school, but we have a radio station, a newspaper, which you don’t typically get in small communities. The people here care a lot and they have really high expectations. But, you know, I think that makes it the best part of living here, and also the hardest part, too, because you’re under a microscope. But to me, that just makes me perform better, I think, just knowing that it’s all out there.
How is your family settling in? What are you looking forward to going into your second year now that you’ve seen what a whole year is like in Haines?
I’m really excited to have a summer. We’re going to hike and backpack. I’ve never caught any hooligan but I’m going to try that out and smoke those and be able to actually catch some fish this summer because I’m not going to be moving. That will be really nice. There’s some backpacking trips we wanted to do in Skagway, so that will be cool, too. You know, my kids are doing piano lessons at the library, then yeah, just getting used to all the different traditions. We went to the Christmas Parade.
Thanksgiving Dinner here was really cool. You know, it’s one of those things in a smaller school, you have traditions like that, where it’s like, in a typical school, that would be a travel day, but here, you know, I had to work. And at first, I was like, oh, man, I have to work. Everybody else gets to have the day off. But then, you know, you have the Thanksgiving feasts, and all the kids are there, and Lilly’s cooking stuff in the kitchen, and kids are laughing, having fun, and teachers and students are connecting, and it was super awesome. So I think just embracing all the quirks and traditions and all that little stuff, I’m excited to actually play, I think a bigger role in that next year.
What’s a tradition you would like to bring?
Anything where we can get teachers and students and staff and community members connected, I want to make sure that we increase that. Because one thing that the students have pointed out is that teacher retention? is something that they see as a pretty substantial challenge to the school.
One way that we kind of combat that is just making sure that teachers are connected to their new community. And if you can do activities like the Thanksgiving dinner or if you can build in intentional activities or times for teachers to connect with the community and the kids that’ll be really helpful for retention, too. On Prince of Wales Island, we did these things called PHlight clubs. I’m not sure if I would do them here. Whenever we did those, it would be like Thorne Bay and Naukati and Craig and Klawock and Hydaburg, so all these island schools would go and it would be an overnight thing and we would teach kids how to have healthy relationships with mentors and seek out people to help you better yourself and learn more about themselves and the support that they have. It connects kids with other kids, and it connected the adults with the kids, too. I heard a really good quote that every kid in a small school is a big deal and that’s so true. I think that everything that happens in a small school is a big deal, so just being mindful of that, too, is important.
There are some really challenging things coming up for the district which is already in a challenging place to be flat-funded by the state for so long, now there’s a conversation about potentially asking the borough for more money and that’s probably a lot of stuff that the Superintendent is going to handle, but where do you see yourself in that ecosystem of managing what is becoming increasingly more complex.
Well, I think that any way that you can get students or parents, teachers, everyone involved in advocacy and it doesn’t have to be flying out to Juneau and protesting. It can just be writing a letter to your legislative folks in the state and just saying “Hey, you know, this is why we need education funding.” So I think the advocacy piece is really important.
I started my day at Klukwan cchool and I’ve been hearing from parents in town who are sending their kids out there now, so their enrollment is growing. It seems like the two schools have started developing a closer relationship – I’m curious how you see your role as the principal in deepening those connections and what steps are you going to take to do that?
Going back to Prince of Wales, I care about all kids and if they happen to go to Klukwan, they go to Klukwan. So much of the really awesome stuff that I think of, or that I do, is collaborative with other people. So, any time that you work with other organizations or institutions or people that – you’re going to get ideas for really cool stuff that you wouldn’t have thought of by yourself, or you can’t do by yourself. Collaboration is important, and it’s helpful and healthy and it benefits everybody. It could help us become a better school and help Klukwan become a better school at the same time. If you look at our mission, it’s that we’re going to take advantage of the resources of the Chilkat Valley and the communities and Klukwan is one of those communities. We had our [professional development] at the beginning of the year and we went to Klukwan and learned a ton about the valley from Marsha Hotch. I was just thinking, “Man,, this would be so cool if kids could do this.” We’re going to keep giving kids the best education that we can, and we hope that they’ll choose our school. But, if families choose to go to Klukwan for their own reasons, and you know that’s their choice too – but we’re all in the game of education and helping kids better their lives. If we can do that with another school then we can impact more kids.
I think my specific question was more about what you see as your role in deepening that collaboration? I’m curious – how can you specifically deepen that collaboration?
Just being mindful that we’re offering this thing at the school and if we can make sure to communicate that with the Klukwan folks that they have an opportunity to take advantage of it, too. I would love to do something like the PHlight clubs that we did on Prince of Wales and be able to be more involved with each other.