Lakeland Joint School Districts new Superintendent, Rusty Taylor, and Assistant Superintendent, Jake Massey, are showing a united front.
“We want to make sure we’re aligning all our actions with what is best for students first,” Massey said.
Massey was the principal at Garwood elementary. Prior to Garwood he was the principal in southern Idaho. He opened a school in Kimberly, Idaho and was the vice principal at another school before that. He has also been a 5th grade teacher.
Taylor is from Arizona.
“I chose Rathdrum before you chose me,” Taylor said.
Taylor and his wife bought a house up here a year ago. He worked in education for 30 years, coached, taught all different levels and subjects except kindergarten, and has been in administration. He has been in small and large districts. He also is a basketball ref.
The Lakeland Joint School District 272 has faced a $2 million dollar budget cut in the past months after the levy had failed.
Administration followed through with the cuts that were said to happen last year.
They will continue to watch the budget cuts and make adjustments if need be. The budget cuts were taken from what could be lost and not one area had to take on the full amount, it was tried to keep as evenly as possible.
Both Massey and Taylor have made it clear their intentions are the students first. Taylor said if they take care of the students the other groups are taken care of too.
“If parents know that their kids are being taken care of and we’re doing the right things they’re happy,” Taylor said.
Their jobs are to deal with the whole district so when specifically asked about Lakeland they had both said that they trust the team that they have a Lakeland to communicate needs with them.
“I want to be supportive as I can to your principal and his team and to your teachers,” Massey said, “My plans are to be present and to know what’s going on.”
They have been making appearances at the school events with the intent that they are putting students first.
Taylor said at his old district they had used an acronym called ACT. The acronym consists of trust, respect, being united, and being transparent.
“In schools you need to be as transparent as possible, you still have to protect people’s privacy, ” Taylor said, “In a school environment you need to make sure you show all your finances, justify your expenses, and make sure you’re hiring the best people. I am pretty much an open book about that. If we have a tough situation we need to have trust.”
Even with them only being here for a few months they have truly shown that they will show up for the students. They have been at most events and await Battle for the Paddle.
“We have committed to making sure that extracurriculars and activities are available to you,” Massey said, “We have committed to making sure that your school is safe and secure. What you can expect from us is to administer our District programs in a way where those things are guaranteed for you.”
