Libby school board chooses new elementary principal

The successor to outgoing Libby Elementary School Principal Ron Goodman has been chosen, and she’s a familiar face — Kaide Dodson, the school’s assistant principal.

“I am honored to be selected as the principal at Libby Elementary School, especially because the students, staff, and quality of instruction in this school are top notch,” Dodson said Thursday via email. “I have been fortunate to work with Mr. Goodman this year as the assistant principal and I look forward to the challenge of being Libby Elementary School’s principal.”

With a unanimous vote, the Libby School Board selected Dodson Tuesday evening after interviewing her and three other candidates over two days.

In a statement provided Wednesday to The Western News, Libby Schools Superintendent Craig Barringer said that Dodson’s taking over the role of principal would offer continuity of the “culture of student-focused achievement” that she, Goodman and school staff established at the school.

Barringer also noted that Dodson played a lead role in developing a recently awarded, multi-year student writing strategies grant “and she understands where the elementary needs to go in order to ensure the successful implementation of the grant.”

“Libby Elementary has an outstanding statewide reputation for the their work academically and socially with the students,” Barringer concluded. “Mrs. Dodson will continue to lead our elementary on a positive path.”

The other three candidates the School Board interviewed were Thad Kaiser, Lynne Peterson and Beth Stevenson.

Kaiser is superintendent and principal at Noxon Schools, Peterson is superintendent and high school principal at Savage Schools in Eastern Montana, and Stevenson is assistant principal at a middle school in Hampstead, New Hampshire.

In his resignation letter, Ron Goodman wrote that he will be leaving at the end of the school year to work as a financial advisor for Edward Jones.