Kilbride, Jones Talk About Changes at SCSD#1

Pete Kilbride, who has been superintendent of SCDS#1 for five years, is retiring the end of June. Prior to that he was four years a principal as Tongue River Middle School, and prior to that he was counselor at TRHS.

When asked if it was a challenge to run two high schools, two middle schools and two elementary, Kilbride had this to say,

Kilbride lives in Dayton, but he said that he has felt well-received in Big Horn. He said one of the big goals for him was bringing the schools together better. It is a fact that there is a competition between the two schools in District One. “We want a healthy competition between the two sides, but not an adversarial one,” he said, adding,

Kilbride said before he came to Dayton, he served as a Social Studies teacher and coach in Laramie, where he also earned a masters in administration and a masters in counseling. His last three years in Laramie he was a counselor.

He grew up in North Dakota, graduated from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and from there he went to a small town in Long Creek Oregon, a town of about 200 people. In K-12 they had around 100 kids, he said. There he coached every sport and taught all the social studies classes as well as health classes.

A SCSD#1, both schools have graduation rates of over 90%. In 2022, Big Horn had a 93% graduation rate, and Tongue River had 98%. Kilbride said that he felt while academics are important for the students, personal development is important as well.

When asked if he had any big plans for retirement, Kilbride said that he plans to take July and August off, and he said he had received some advice from a colleague to take some time off and not be in a hurry to tie into another job right away.

Kilbride has two sons, one who is a junior this year at TRHS, and another who is attending college in Colorado. He said one reason he retired this year was to enjoy his son’s senior year and spend more time with his family.

Kilbride said he also enjoys woodworking and plans to do more of that in retirement. He laughed and added that his wife, Erin, has a ‘honey-do’ list that would keep him busy for a while as well.

When asked what he had enjoyed most about his job, he said:

Stepping into Kilbride’s shoes will be Jeff Jones. Jones has been the principal at Tongue River Middle School for five years. He said that he has observed the superintendent’s role from many angles.

Jones said he has been in Wyoming for about 17 years. He was principal in Idaho at a large middle school. He said before he took this principal job at TMRS, he taught at Sheridan College, in the teacher education department.

Jones lives in Sheridan. When he moved to the area, he was assistant principal at the Sheridan Junior High School, he was there for about five years. Later he taught at Sheridan college.

When Kilbride stepped into the superintendent role, Jones was hired as TRMS Principal. He said what he plans to do when he takes over his new role as superintendent.

Jones added that they had good people in SCSD#1, and that was important, as without good people there are more challenges. He said that teachers and the community all work together on both sides of the district.

Both Jones and Kilbride said that having been teachers, they like to connect with the students, “I’m not willing to not be around kids as a superintendent,” Jones said.

Kilbride added that he often makes an excuse to go to the school and just walk in and talk to the kids. “I call it getting my kid fix,” he said with a laugh.

Kilbride will leave the position at the end of June, and Jones will step in the first of July.