New principal welcomed at Glacier Gateway

Kathi Yanamura’s education philosophy is a simple one.

“I really believe that students have to come first,” she said last week. “We need to make sure they have the skills to be successful.”

Yanamura is the new principal at Glacier Gateway School. She was the principal in Sitka, Alaska and worked previously as a teacher and a principal for more than 20 years in Juneau, Alaska.

But she’s not an Alaskan native. She grew up an Army brat and moved a lot, but she was born in Hawaii and has family that still lives there. Yanamura has lived a challenging, but rewarding life.

She married her husband Reilly Richey knowing full well he had cancer and could die within a few years. But he lived almost long enough to see their son Naashukwa Richey graduate from high school.

Reilly was a junior high football coach and teacher in Juneau, and for years the couple produced a community broadcast TV show in the fall called “Coach’s Corner,” long before the advent of digital video editing. Yanamura said it was a great and rewarding experience.

“If I had to do it all over again, I definitely would,” she said.

Yanamura retired from public education in 2007, but she was only 49 and missed the work. So for a few years, she took on contract work for the Juneau school district and then returned as a principal there in 2011. She then moved to Sitka before coming here.

Columbia Falls has been very friendly, she said.

“Folks have been very welcoming,” she said. “They’ve been very helpful.”

This year, Columbia Falls schools will adopt the new Common Core standards for education, a rigorous curriculum that promises some growing pains. Students, even elementary students, will take the standardized tests on a computer — so they have to learn to use a keyboard.

Glacier Gateway has the resources to handle keyboarding classes, she said. It has a computer lab and additional laptops and will also have iPads available.

But there will be an adjustment period, and Yanamura said she wouldn’t be surprised if initial test scores are lower. Having said that, she has confidence in the school’s teaching staff.

“I have a lot of faith in these teachers,” she said. “They’re very dedicated. They’ll rise to the occasion.”