New superintendent

When Polly Crowley was a child growing up in Moscow, Idaho, there was no question about her chosen profession. The West Valley School District superintendent had painted a mural in the basement of her home depicting herself as a teacher.

“My mom was a home economics teacher, and I always admired what she did,” Crowley said. “I guess I always saw myself that way.”

In February, she was selected to lead West Valley as superintendent, after longtime Superintendent Dave Smith retired.

Crowley, 58, said she can’t imagine being anywhere else and is thrilled to have been chosen for the job.

“This is a small enough district where you can really make a difference,” Crowley said. “It’s a place where I can call any staff member by name.

“There is a lot of competition for jobs here,” she added. “And I really believe we have the cream of the crop.”

Crowley graduated from the University of Idaho, and accepted her first job as a home economics teacher in the same department that her mother taught in at Moscow High School.

“I got a lot of my pearls (of wisdom) from my mother,” Crowley said.

After one year, Crowley’s husband of 37 years, Tom, also an educator, accepted a job in Troy, Mont. She became a stay-at-home mom to her three children but still kept her foot in education part time when she could.

“As time went on, it became more difficult finding a job as a home economics teacher,” Crowley said.

Nationally, the study of home economics shifted to focus on career, and vocational and technical education.

After her husband accepted a job as a school administrator in Post Falls, she taught home economics and vocational classes to adults at Spokane Community College and North Idaho College part time.

“At that time I knew I wanted to be back in the classroom,” she said.

She returned to school and became certified to teach math, teaching seventh and eighth grade in Post Falls.

Her first taste of leadership was as the president of the Post Falls Education Association

“My husband was really the one who encouraged me to try administration,” Crowley said.

Her husband is currently the superintendent of the Rosalia (Wash.) School District.

“We agreed, when I went into administration, that we would find jobs within 50 miles of each other,” she said. It’s exactly 42 miles to Rosalia.

After earning her doctorate from Gonzaga University, Crowley accepted a job as the vice principal at West Valley High School.

She quickly climbed through the ranks, rising to assistant superintendent for instruction, a job she held just prior to becoming the superintendent.

“She’s extremely fair,” said Gene Sementi, the principal at West Valley, who recently accepted the post as assistant superintendent, working alongside Crowley.

“She really is able to rally the entire district around the idea that we have to do the very best job that we can for every child,” Sementi said.

He praised Crowley’s work on the district’s literacy program.

This year the district hired six literacy coaches to help teachers with reading instruction across every subject.

“It’s really changed the way teachers are looking at their job,” Sementi said. Even though she spends most of her time in the administration building, Crowley said one of her most important tasks is spending at least one day a week observing various classrooms.

“The biggest dose of learning I get each week is when I spend that time in the classroom,” Crowley said. “That’s when I get to see when the rubber really hits the road.”

When she’s off work, Crowley is an avid outdoors enthusiast who loves to bike, hike, and just about anything in the wild.

“There’s a real connection to the wilderness for me,” Crowley said. “As soon as all of our kids could carry backpacks,” they were out there, she said.

Crowley has kept a written journal of all her family’s backpacking trips over the years. They try not to repeat the same trip twice.

“We’re always looking for a little lake for fishing, or whatever, but not exactly in the same destination,” Crowley said. “It’s my release.”