That old adage about not being able to go home again? It doesn’t say you can’t get close, anyway.

Russ Lodge, principal at Sequim’s Helen Haller Elementary School since 2012, is taking a job near Spokane next fall — a position that will get him closer to family and Western Montana, where he worked for nearly 30 years.

Lodge is the new principal at Deer Park Elementary in Deer Park, about 12 miles north of Spokane. He will finish out the school year through May and June, then officially start his new position July 1.

“Thanks to the Sequim community for the privilege of being here — it has been a blessing,” Lodge said.

Deer Park Elementary is a kindergarten-second grade school with an enrollment of about 450 students.

“The primary reason is getting closer to family,” Lodge said, noting he and wife Micki have a daughter and several siblings in Western Montana and nearby communities, most within about a three-hour drive.

“Deer Park was really appealing to me,” Lodge said. “It’s about the size of Sequim.”

Lodge replaces Bonnie Remington, who this fall takes on new responsibilities for Deer Park’s school district as well as a position with Educational Service District 101, providing support and training to school districts throughout the Northeast Washington region.

Travis Hanson, superintendent of Deer Park schools, said Lodge was a good choice for Deer Park because of a combination of factors, most obvious Lodge’s depth of experience — more than 30 years in various levels of administration — paired with his disposition.

“Out of a real deep pool of qualified candidates, Russ did stand out,” Hanson said. “What stood out for us is how genuine (Russ) is. A genuine man who cares about kids and cares about being a great leader came through in everything we read and heard.”

Hanson said Lodge’s primary challenges in Deer Park will be threefold: connecting with schools that have had the same elementary school-level administrators for 17 years, finding ways to connect with members of a close-knit community (Deer Park has a population of about 3,600) and working in conjunction with the principal of the nearby intermediate (grades 3-5) school.

“He’s kind of following a legacy of community pride — there hasn’t been a great deal of change,” Hanson said. “In addition to getting to know the staff, it’s also a matter of getting to know the community.”

Making an impact

Lodge came to Sequim after spending three decades as an administrator in Montana schools — most recently principal at Hellgate High School in Missoula, just prior to moving to Sequim. He worked 22 years with Missoula County Public Schools, 10 as a classroom teacher and a dozen as administrator/principal.

Here, Lodge led Helen Haller, a kindergarten-fifth grade school with about 615 students.

“I’m going to miss the staff and the relationships I developed over four years,” Lodge said. “Any time you leave, when you work so closely with people over 10 months of a year, it’s hard to do.”

Debbie Buchillo, secretary at Helen Haller Elementary, said Lodge will be missed.

“I’ve worked with wonderful principals who’ve been here for 30 years but he’s the icing on the cupcake,” Buchillo said.

Lodge noted he is proud of some of the changes he and other staffers have made to improve not just academics but attitudes at the elementary school.

“We were able to develop a real positive, relationship-driven way to deal with kids,” he said. “We got all of the adults on board (and) agreed to some common language and positive behavior systems.”

In his tenure, Lodge asked staff to follow through with the theme of “Academic success through a child’s well-being.”

Said Lodge, “It’s saying we want to get this far down the road academically, but we want them to be good citizens, too.”

School counselor Joan Trindle was hired at Helen Haller the same year (2012) as Lodge.

“He has the ability to create a really safe learning environment … to feel safe and respected,” Trindle said of Lodge. “That’s what sets him apart from a lot of people I’ve worked for.”

Next steps

The Sequim School Board approves hiring of district staff, including school administrators.

In July 2015, the board approved the promotion of Becky Stanton to Helen Haller’s first assistant principal. Lodge said his choice for a successor — though he admitted he doesn’t get much of a say in it — would be for Stanton to fill that role.

“Becky would be my biased (choice),” Lodge said.

Lodge said Helen Haller faces challenges like any other school, particularly in the realm of space for students. The school district and advisory groups have looked at adding to Sequim an elementary school and transitioning Helen Haller into other uses, but voters have rejected four bond proposals in the past two years.

The school has seven portables with 13 classrooms.

“It’s a large elementary school,” Lodge said — as of May, Helen Haller has 621 students. “It’s a facility that is not able to be able to handle that challenge well. It can handle (that number), but not well.”

Trindle said, “(Russ) leaves us with this awesome foundation that he’s built. He set a standard that I hope we can keep.”