Greg Upham is retiring from his career in public education after 36 years. First as an industrial arts teacher, then principal, then superintendent of Montana’s largest school district.
YPR’s Orlinda Worthington visited Upham about his biggest accomplishments and where things can still improve in public education.
Orlinda Worthington: Greg, thank you for speaking with us today. Let's begin with what made you move from the classroom into administration.
Greg Upham: I actually wept multiple times, moving from the classroom to administration, but it felt like that was the next move.
What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing teachers and administrators today?
Greg Upham: I've watched the consistent destabilization of the family structure. When you think back about when education was first designed, and it hasn't changed that much and some of its criticism I understand, was based on a completely different family structure. And so, you know, what we push and what I've pushed in my career is to make sure that students are on grade level when they're supposed to be on grade level. And when I ask our, our building principals why the students aren't on grade level, number one is there's poor attendance. And then number two is they lack cognitive endurance. And so, I say to the principals, well explain that. And they'll say, well, we're seeing a lot of parenting by device, and so the student doesn't have the stamina, so.
Especially in kindergarten, first and second grade in those primary grades to sit long enough and learn. Now, mind you, we're not asking our kindergartners to sit for six hours, but that's what I'm seeing. I've seen drug addictions, alcohol addictions, the DFS and foster care. I've watched that happen.
I've watched single moms working two and three jobs to try to keep enough food on the table. I feel the most powerful classroom in the world is the kitchen table. And we're seeing more families that don't have a kitchen table. We've seen more and more families that don't have time to sit down. And so, the 180-day school calendar, which was built a long time ago, really needs to be evaluated as far as if we want to maximize the number of students being on grade level.
As I look back on my career, that's, that's my biggest concern because attached to that, Orlinda, are significant, significant student behaviors, which we've, we've seen in the last five to six years that's, that's causing more staff to leave the classroom so, Than I've seen in the impacts to building administrators too.
Do you see any possible solutions for those situations?
Greg Upham: Well, you know, yes, and it's gonna take a team approach. I think we've done a really nice job here. Uh, we were able to, we were successful with a $5 million refer to as an aware grant that's specific to students who are displaying significant behaviors. And it, it's no longer the, the teacher's ability to get that person to calm down. It requires, Professional help on the outside past what the teacher can provide. So medical help, mental health help, all of that. And when we get those resources together, we see the students have success. And Orlinda, when you look back at what was education designed to do?
Well, we're teaching and learning. Right? It's doing so much more now. So, we're seeing a lot more social issues that schools are helping providing support for, and we, we welcome that. My concern is you reduce the budgets that we're working with in the, in the needs that are increasing. You're gonna create a, I refer to it as a bad math problem and it's a wonderful profession, but public education is one of those tenets of our democracy, and I believe this that we better pay very close attention to, and it's not the time to dismantle, it's the time to double down, just with what I'm seeing with families.
You mentioned that the 180-day calendar may not actually work as well as it used to. If you could design the perfect school day, the perfect school year, what, what would that look like to you?
Greg Upham: Yeah, I think there, there's some schools that are already doing this and it's called a balance calendar. It's still 180 days, but it's shorter breaks and it allows that person to learn more frequently. If I'm not reading on grade level and I leave the end of May and I don't come back until the end of August and there's no stimulus for me and no support, I'm gonna fall further and further behind, and that's what I'm seeing.
And then on the other end of the spectrum, Orlinda, you know, we, how are our advanced learners doing? And, and we're doing awesome. No one is being denied. You know, Ivy League schools or the West Coast or MSU or U of M that want to put the time into it. We've got phenomenal teachers.
Did you have some priorities coming in as Superintendent of Billings public schools, and were some of the top ones and those that you feel that you accomplished and are proud of those?
Greg Upham: Yeah. Well, I brought four in. Number one was to increase student achievement, and that was students on grade level when they were supposed to be on grade level. More students qualifying for national merit finalists, more students scoring in the upper A C T, and those types of situations. And so, we've seen great improvement in that area.
And then second was, the future Ready was the career CTE work, and I just knew that we were ready for getting students into these opportunities that hadn't been before, just because we hadn't thought about it that way, and I couldn't be more pleased with that. The third was mental health, working with our counselors and trying to get that improved to the best of our ability.
I feel good about the elementary and what we've done with that but haven't been able to attack the middle school and the high school like we need to. And then the fourth one was self-care for staff. When you break down what a teacher does, they teach, but in the beginning and in the end, they're really motivators.
It's an enormous amount of energy that is required from an individual, and if they're not taking care of themselves, then they lose that, that effectiveness that they have and more so just the joy of the job.
Greg, thank you for speaking with us and my best to you and your family in your retirement.
Greg Upham: Well, thank you for asking me, Orlinda.
