Retirement won’t slow superintendent

MATT NEVALA

June 26, 2008 at 2:11PM AKST

Bill Ferguson is going to wake up a few days from now and get to work on the list — a lengthy line-up of “honey do’s” and chores he’s been compiling for a while now.

“It’s got about 22 items, work that needs to be done on the house, and it’s still growing,” Ferguson said. “One of the first things I’ve got to do is paint my granddaughter’s room.”

Come Monday morning, Ferguson’s schedule should clear him for such tasks. The day marks the first of Ferguson’s life as a retired educator, something of a milestone for a man who dedicated more than 40 years to teaching and tending to the children of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Ferguson’s contract as superintendent of the Lower Kuskokwim School District expired Monday after 11 years on the job. He announced his retirement last fall, the move eventually ending an educational stint that started in the region in 1967.

“Forty years is long enough,” Ferguson said. “I’m 67 years old. I think there needs to be a little new blood.”

Gary Baldwin, an assistant superintendent under Ferguson, is the district’s new superintendent. He’s been with LKSD for more than 24 years in a number of administrative positions.

According to the LKSD Website, the district is the largest rural school district in Alaska in number of sites, teachers and students. Headquartered in Bethel, the district is comprised of 21 villages as well as three schools in Bethel. The villages are spread over an area the size of Ohio and are located along the Kuskokwim River and coastline of Southwestern Alaska. About 280 teachers serve about 3,400 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

But that wasn’t the case when Ferguson and his wife, Cauline, arrived on the Delta in 1967 after a brief time teaching in Oregon and studying in New Mexico. Ferguson began teaching at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs School in Kasigluk, a village 26 miles northwest of Bethel.

“I first stepped off the plane and was wondering, ‘Why?’” Ferguson said. “Coming from Oregon, I was used to the mountains and trees. Kasigluk was flat, barren, a village with no trees but for a willow maybe four feet high.

“But the longer I stayed, the more I got to see the beauty. I talked to friends about the tundra. You see only the browns and grays, but once you get out there you see the flowers and the beauty.”
However, it was the students that really sparked Ferguson’s love affair with the region.

“The more we worked with the children, the more receptive they were to learning,” he said. “We worked with the children and the parents of the children and it quickly became my philosophy to stay here and continue to work with them.

“It shaped my education philosophy — that the kids are important.”

Ferguson stayed in Kasigluk until moving to LKSD headquarters in 1978 to work as a district principal. He went back to Kasigluk for the 1981-82 school year before taking over as LKSD superintendent in 1997.

The “kids are important” mindset may sound simplistic to some, but it shaped the way Ferguson did his many jobs over the years. The perceived isolation of living in any of Alaska’s villages didn’t mean students couldn’t aspire for more.

“It was always one of the things that bothered me, people saying the kids from the villages will never leave and don’t need to be provided with a good education,” Ferguson said. “I always opposed that philosophy. It doesn’t matter whether you lived in a remote village or the suburbs of Portland (Ore.), you should be provided with a good education.”

Ferguson took over as LKSD superintendent in the aftermath of 1997’s school shooting at Bethel Regional High School. Evan Ramsey killed two people and injured two others in February, and the incident put a national spotlight on Bethel and the entire Y-K Delta. Ramsey is serving two 99-year sentences and isn’t eligible for parole until 2066.

“The community was very resilient, it pulled together,” Ferguson said. “The people were very receptive to me and my commitment to kids. There was very little question as to why I wanted to be superintendent.”

Ferguson lauded the efforts of Baldwin and other LKSD officials who championed the area’s recovery after the shooting.

After announcing he would retire, Ferguson talked about all the changes he’s witnessed in the region through the years. In November, he told The Tundra Drums that modern technology might be the most significant of them all.

“You’re right next door to anything you want,” he said.

Ferguson said he would remain in Bethel and stay involved in some capacity.

“There are some seats on the school board I may consider running for,” he said. “I’m not going to lay back.”

LKSD officials and staff feted Ferguson at a picnic on May 30. He’s been honored with a citation from Sen. Lyman Hoffman and the Alaska Legislature that stated “his focus for improved education has always been: If it’s good for the kids, we will find a way.”

Ferguson will never be far from the district or its students. But his retirement means the LKSD will be a little different when the new school year begins in the fall.

“Bill has been a tremendous influence,” said Susan Murphy, a lifelong Bethel resident and vice president of the LKSD school board. “His heart is with the children, and he cares about them tremendously.

“But we will go on.”

Ferguson will move on as well — right to his list of home repair and improvement projects.

“I’m going to be very busy,” he said.

Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2480 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 480.