Kids still big part of retiring RBE principal’s life

With three days left in the principal’s chair at Robert Bennis Elementary, the walls in Karen Heyden’s office are still decorated with memorabilia from her 20-year career with the Brandon Valley School District.

As she points to an assortment of hand-written notes and drawings from students, she takes a deep breath, “I’ll be coming in this weekend to pack it all up,” she says. “It’s a strange feeling. I’m not sad, I’m not happy, it’s just a strange feeling to say ‘I’m not in charge anymore.’”

Heyden’s parting with the Brandon Valley School District this year didn’t come easily. Ironically so, it’s kids – her 19 grandchildren – that ultimately prompted the decision.

“A lot of it is because I have 19 grandkids,” she says. “Vic’s (her husband) been retired for two years, and I feel good … and I wanted to be done when I still liked my job. So many times you hear that someone retires and something happens. Not that it won’t happen to me, but right now I’m not tired of my job and I don’t want people to say, ‘Well, it’s time that she quit,’ and I don’t think they’re saying that.”

Post-principal, Heyden’s daily life consists of working side by side with her husband on their Iowa farm.

“We worked together side by side for, well, we’ve been married for over 40 years, and that’s what we used to do before I had my four kids, and now we took this break for 30 years and it’s going to feel good to go back,” she says, noting the head of cattle, horses and pasture to care for in addition to the 19 grandkids that live within six miles.

“I’m happy to be able to help my kids when their kids get sick and they have to call in sick and take the day off,” she said.

And she’s a grandma who is involved. On a recent day, Heyden had five soccer games to take in.

“Well, I can’t make them all so I go for 10, 20 minutes and then you go to the next one because they’re all in Larchwood, so I can just hop on over. That’s the kind of grandma I am, I go to their stuff,” she informs.

The majority of Heyden’s career in education took place in Brandon, where she first student-taught sixth grade science with Mary Niedringhaus, Bob Peters and Becky Mohr. Her first teaching assignment – a seven-year stint - was with the West Lyon (Iowa) School District.

“Actually, I was a late bloomer,” Heyden tells of her entry into her career. “By the time I was 28, I had all four of my kids, and then Vic came home one day from work and I said, ‘I have four little ones here and if something would happen to you the best I could do is get a waitress job because I did nothing after high school,” she recalls.

At 33, Heyden started college, completing her degree in three and a half years.

While at West Lyon, she pursued her school administrator certification, which reopened the doors for her to Brandon Valley.

“You know, you send out all those apps and you just get no, no, no. Actually, my twin sister had called me and said, ‘Karen, there’s a curriculum opening at Valley Springs,’ but I said I can’t apply for the curriculum director.”

Her sister was relentless, continuing to encourage her to apply for the position because “maybe something else would come up,” Heyden adds.

“Well lo and behold, Joel Grimm took that position at Valley as curriculum director, which opened up the assistant principal (at Brandon Elementary) position for me … I’m just so lucky that George Gulson and Marv Sharkey remembered me and gave me that opportunity,” she said.

Heyden spent six of her 20 years at Brandon Elementary. The first three years as the assistant principal to Marv Sharkey before he retired, and then stepped up to the lead role for three years with Merle Horst as her assistant. Horst, in turn, was promoted to principal when Heyden took charge at Robert Bennis.

“For six years, Brandon Elementary was the largest school. We had over 1,000 kids in that building because it was either Brandon Elementary or Valley (Springs), and now look at what we have. There’s this school (Robert Bennis), Fred Assam and now we’ve got the Intermediate School and all the add-ons that we’ve done.

“You know, when I come up this road here, I always came past Beaver Valley Lutheran Church and coming up that way, there was nothing out there, nothing, and then they built that George Boom Funeral Home. It stuck out like a sore thumb, and there was a church there, that was all there was. All of a sudden, you can hardly see them because of all of these houses, and all of those little ones come here, so we are now about equal with Brandon Elementary, and that’s never happened since we opened here. I think Fred Assam is probably 25 kids below us, and I think they will pass us eventually, too,” she said.

When Heyden came to Brandon Elementary, the school had an organized PTA, and she was elated.

“Coming from West Lyon, they didn’t have a PTA, so when I came here and they had this organized PTA with a president, a treasurer, a secretary and they had monthly meetings, I’m going ‘This is amazing!’ I’ll never forget my first few months here, they bought computers for our building. That was a big thing … and that PTA has remained strong through these 20 years,” she said. “I was thinking it’s going to flounder, and you do get some people that probably aren’t as good as running it, but overall, the parents here are so dedicated to their kids’ education and are committed to doing what’s good for the kids.”

Heyden said dedicated staff is one of the main reasons Brandon Valley has achieved the No. 1 school district ranking in South Dakota. It’s also what drove Heyden to lead her school to a National Blue Ribbon School nomination this year, an honor no other Brandon Valley School has ever been nominated for.  

“If that comes true, that’s the staff, and I hope that they make a big deal of it because they’re worthy of it,” Heyden says. “When you look at our enrollment, there is nobody in the state with that enrollment that had the scores we had this past year. It’s not because of me. The staff is just committed to the excellence, they’re a bit competitive, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

The National Blue Ribbon School award winner will be announced in September.

The RBE family

In recent years, Heyden’s family experienced tragedy with the death of a grandchild, and she vividly remembers the outpouring of support she received from her RBE family.

“It was very, very difficult, she says,” fighting back tears. “Kate was 11 and was at a swimming pool in Rock Rapids (Iowa), and drowned. That first year, people took care of things; I was here, but I wasn’t.”

Her entire staff supported her family by purchasing a t-shirt in Kate’s honor and presented her with an angels wings necklace with Kate’s name engraved on it.

“I wear it a lot,” she said, “and I needed that support.”

Heyden hopes she’s remembered for her high expectations.

“My legacy is that I set the bar high and that I supported the teachers to reach that bar, and I hope that’s what they think,” she said. “I think I’ve done a good job. These people are so easy to lead. My biggest job was to hire the right people, and I think I’ve done that, and then they just take care of the rest.”

Although the retirement decision is never an easy one to make, Heyden says handing over the reins to her predecessor, Kristin Hofkamp, eased her decision.

“She’s been with me for 13, 14 years so she’s going to run it a lot like I did,” Heyden said. “She’s got more energy than I do and has some great ideas, and she knows the staff.”

Heyden’s parting words of advice to Hofkamp are simple.

“Never think that you’re above anybody in the building,” she shares, “and I don’t think she will.”

Her thoughts quickly turn to an incident years ago that had her working alongside the custodial staff.

“We had a leak in the kitchen and it was about 7 o’clock and they called me, so I came in and was mopping up the water along with the custodians and I told them, ‘I won’t work for you or in place of you, but I will work right next to you.’ That would be the way I would want her to lead; that I will be right next to you whether it be the custodians, the EAs or the teachers. I didn’t picture myself as a hierarchy, that I’m up here and they’re below me. We’re all here for the same reason. Yeah, I had to make the tough decisions but I helped with anything they wanted me to help with because there’s no ‘I’ in team,’” she said.