Local educator to retire after 24 years

When bachelor science teacher Monty Buness started working at Stikine Middle School in the fall of 1989, a British scientist had just invented the world wide web, but it wouldn't be widely available for four more years.

When the former Alaska Principal of the Year – now happily married to former library aide Linda Buness – retires at the end of the 2013-14 school year, every student in the high school will have his or her own laptop computer, and likely own a cell phone or other mobile device capable of connecting to the web virtually anywhere. While he acknowledges that technological advances have been substantial, the most significant changes at Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School, have been about students. He's been principal of both schools and high school activities director at the high school, and head coach of the Wolves cross country team for the last ten years.

"The most obvious change in the school would be its population," he said. "I was looking back at something I sent out about 15 years ago, and we had 140, 145 kids in the middle school at that time, and now we're looking at 70 kids in the middle school, and kind of a similar thing at the high school. Our student population has dropped by about half since our heyday."

Declining population brings declining funds from the state and federal governments, and that has led to tough decisions over the years, Monty Buness said. The high school's accounting and business skills courses, as well as elective English and science courses, have been casualties of declining student rolls. The middle school has lost home economics, and other courses. However, fiscal adversity also created an opportunity for what Monty Buness says is his greatest accomplishment, even if he says in the next breath that he didn't do it single-handedly.

"I think the biggest accomplishment would be that we've created a climate at our school that has played out with teachers wanting to stay here," he said. "I don't take credit for that. We have a lot of teachers that work extremely hard in this school to provide a really good climate for kids, and in doing so it makes it a great place to work. The most exciting thing about my tenure here – and again I don't take a lot of credit here – is that we have a good climate at our school."

Technology has also changed drastically since a fresh-faced Buness graduated in 1978 from the same high school he now leaves for a second time. The influx of new machines has provided challenges, but also opened new doors, Buness said.

"It may be a little harder to engage kids today than it was 10 years ago, so we have to use their own medium to do it," he said. "In that way, technology has allowed us to stay in their world. If we can deliver a lot of our education in a relevant format to them, then we're gonna have a better chance of them wanting to do that or finding that information – or the delivery of that information – relevant. That's what it's all about in education, is relevance. If we can connect to our kids' lives in some way with what we're trying to teach, then they buy in. If you don't, then they don't."

Monty Buness is typically in the office when the school day starts, and as activities director, he's often there after the last student leaves, sometimes as late as 9 or 10 p.m. at night, depending on the event. He supervises lunches, attends school board meetings and helps find visiting students from other schools find housing. A man seen everywhere, Monty Buness describes his most important job as keeping things out of the way.

"My biggest job is to let the teachers do their thing," he said. "My greatest function as an administrator is to be a lightning rod for the teachers. So if that angry parent comes in, or that disgruntled student, my biggest responsibility is to deal with those situations in a way that people feel they've been listened to and their concerns have been addressed. That's something I've worked very, very hard at over the years."

Buness's shoes will be hard to fill, said Bob Davis, who started teaching at Stikine Middle about the same time.

"Anyone who tries to take over that job, as it's now outlined, is doomed to failure," Davis said. "He's basically doing three and a half jobs now."

School officials were looking into a different configuration for the activities director position, said Superintendent Rich Rhodes, who also praised Monty Buness's efforts.

"He's got some big shoes to fill," Rhodes said. "He does an awful lot and he's going to be a tough one to replace. He'll be missed."

The school system has started advertising for a new secondary education principal.

Davis also praised the collected efforts of the Bunesses.

"Monty is kind of like the brains of the middle school," he said. "Linda is kind of like the heart."

Linda Buness – who started working at Stikine Middle School the year before her husband – will join her husband in

retirement, during which they plan to travel around and visit their grandchildren. They met when Monty Buness was teaching her children, and married over their objections.

"Actually, some of the kids in the class were trying to get us together," she said. "Not my kids. My kids sat me down and said 'Mom, you can't date our teacher.' He was their favorite teacher, and they just thought it was a little weird, you know, how middle schoolers would."

She said she'll miss the kids and most of the people she works with.

"Not one," she joked. "I get to take him with me."

The Bunesses said they had been

discussing their retirement for a couple years, but Monty Buness had always asked for another year, Linda Buness said. Then, this year, the timing worked out.

"The adage in any kind of sport or profession is to leave when you're on top or at least leave when you're still effective," Monty Buness said. "I feel really, really good about leaving when our schools – both of them – have been recognized. We won our last cross country championship. All the signs are like, yeah, this is a good time. Maybe we're doing this right."