Principal Mike Devine Offers Words of Wisdom With Retirement Announcement
By Kaitlin Freese
After 10 years on the job, SPASH Principal Mike Devine has announced he will be retiring at the end of the school year.
Under Devine’s watch, and with the help of other district officials, SPASH saw upgraded to building security, providing core study labs each hour of the school day and a new 80/20 grading system which puts an emphasis on tests and rigor.
“My whole working life has been coming to high school, working with kids and teachers,” Devine said. “I look at is as a blessing.”
Devine said he’ll miss the relationships he’s built at the school, but he’ll always consider himself a SPASH Panther.
“We do not make ‘things’ here, we work with people and kids. So I’ll miss the relationships with students and relationships with staff,” he said.
When asked why he chose this year to retire, Devine said: “As they say, it’s better to go out a year early than a year late. I feel like I still have health, energy, and enthusiasm and that’s how I want to go out.”
Devine said he plans to continue working, though he did not say in which field. But he did have advice for the students he’s leaving behind.
“The real goal of high school is not that you do well in high school, but that you do well after high school,” said Devine. “When I was a little kid going to school they always said the three R’s; reading, writing, ‘rithmetic. Continue the focus on the three R’s but I would change them to relationships, relevance, and rigor- with relationships being first. I don’t care if you’re going to be a teacher, cook, a custodian, a security guide, or a principal you have to be able to build relationships with students and staff.”
Devine’s last day will be June 30.
“I never say goodbye, I always say see you later,” he said.