MR. CONSISTENT

POST FALLS — Nearly 40 years ago, a young Jerry Keane entered the teaching profession with big dreams and stars in his eyes, ready to make a difference in the world.

"Those stars are still there," Keane said recently, walking through the door of the Post Falls School District building on Mullan Avenue.

They're still there, and they've always been there.

Keane, who grew up in Wallace and is a University of Idaho graduate, has dedicated most of his life to education.

"I came [to Post Falls] in the fall of ’79, so at the end of this year will be my 40th year," he said. "One thing, I am consistent. I show up."

At the close of the 2019-2020 school year, he'll be walking through those office doors for the last time. He is retiring from his position as superintendent, a role in which he has worked in since 2001.

"I've been very lucky. It's pretty unusual for a superintendent to have that kind of longevity and I just feel like I’ve been very, very lucky," he said. "I’ve been able to work with a whole bunch of great quality people, a lot of mentors, both professionally and personally. There’s not been a day where I haven’t felt like this is the job I want to do."

Keane started his teaching in Nebraska. As a North Idaho guy who loves all things North Idaho, though, he came back to the panhandle to work in the district from which his children would one day graduate.

He taught history at Post Falls High School from '79 to '85, a job that brought him much joy.

"I tried to make it real for students, and relevant,” he said. "When you’re 17 years old, sometimes what happened 200 years ago isn’t as important as you hope it would be. You just have to make it somehow relevant to them."

He went on to become the assistant vice principal at Post Falls High School before assuming the role of assistant superintendent in 1990. In '94 he was the interim superintendent "and kind of got my feet wet a little bit as what it would be like to be a superintendent."

Keane wasn't quite ready for the job then. Instead, he worked under Richard Harris, who was hired at that time.

"I learned a heck of a lot from him, and he retired in 2000," Keane said. "I applied and was lucky enough to become superintendent in 2001."

In his tenure with the school district, Keane has touched the lives of thousands of students, many of whom are now parents and even grandparents. He chuckled when he talked about how hearing former students call him "Mr. Keane" makes him aware of how much time has passed.

"One thing I have to say is really special about having been here so long is I’ve had the opportunity to see students become adults and become leaders and parents,” he said, grinning. "It’s pretty special when a 50-year-old person comes up and says, ‘Mr. Keane, how are you doing?’ And I’m saying, ‘Please don’t call me Mr. Keane.'"

Keane has been in education through seven presidencies and he's seen Post Falls explode in population. Five different schools have been built in the district since he started his career, including the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC) in Rathdrum, on whose board he serves as chairman.

"We’ve had 14 elections to ask folks to support different things over my tenure, and we’ve had great support, an average of 73 percent voter approval, so I feel very fortunate to be a part of that," he said. "Our community is great. We’ve been so fortunate in the school district. Post Falls is a great place to live and to be."

He praises Post Falls teachers and staff for so thoroughly committing to their students.

"The quality of instruction today is, in my opinion, the best it’s ever been," he said. "I can tell you, I’ve done this for a long time, and the teachers that are working with our kids are amazing and do a tremendous job."

He commends the teachers for their work in an era peppered with social and safety issues more than any previous time. He said the district is seeing more and more kids with issues related to trauma and their home lives.

"Schools are a microcosm of society," he said. "Schools take all students, no matter where they come from, from a kid that is traumatized to fetal alcohol kids, and we have to do absolutely what we need to do to help them move forward. That’s a challenge for sure: How do we address students that come from diverse backgrounds and such different places?"

School safety is constantly on the hearts and minds of education professionals in the wake of waves of violence and school shootings. Keane was the assistant superintendent when the Columbine massacre happened in 1999.

"In the '80s, when I was in the schools, we’d have some school safety issues. Obviously, kids are going to be kids,” he said. "But it is so much more high stakes today, it feels like."

When these things happen, he said, he immediately begins to think about how more can be done to prevent them.

"What can we do better, or more of, or different, to make sure it doesn’t happen here? It’s a super complex problem. There’s no one answer. We just have to do what we can control," he said. "One of the things we’re working hard on is providing social/emotional support for students who may have difficulties, mental issues. We just have to do a great job of making sure we see signals where a student may be in distress."

The students have always been Keane's priority. During staff meetings, he reinforces this by encouraging his teachers to be the best they can be for those kids.

"I’ll say, ‘Everybody in this room knows who their favorite teacher is.’ They also know who their least favorite teacher is. I say, ‘You, obviously, want to be the most favorite teacher, and what are the characteristics?' It’s always the same thing — ‘They cared about me,’ ‘They took time to work with me,'" he said. "It’s not complex in general, even though teaching is super complex in a lot of ways. Just make sure people know you care. They’re not going to listen unless they know you care about them."

This level of tireless dedication, day in and day out, has not gone unnoticed by his colleagues.

Post Falls Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Programs Dena Naccarato said whoever takes Keane's place has some very big shoes to fill.

"I don’t think there are enough words to express how fortunate the students, staff and parents in the Post Falls School District have been to have a student-centered leader for such an extended period of time," she said. "He is humble, level-headed, fair and always puts the interests of children first when making a decision. Over his tenure, Jerry has been a respected member of nearly all community and statewide committees which makes his institutional knowledge irreplaceable. He has been an incredible mentor to so many educators throughout the state, and his retirement will impact not only the community of Post Falls, but also the state of Idaho."

In retirement, Keane plans to enjoy those North Idaho things he loves — fishing, hiking, spending time on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

"I’m probably going to do more of what I already do, like ski, as long as the old body will allow it," he said.

But he's not going anywhere. With his years of institutional knowledge, he anticipates he'll be helpful to the people of School District 273 in the future, including to his replacement, for whom the board is actively searching right now.

"I’m going to miss it. There's no doubt about it. I have such an ownership of this school district and community, but you have to think about is it the right time? And I think it is time," he said.

"It’s been a great ride."