Thursday, June 05, 2025
73.0°F

Frank Atkinson selected as new Frontier principal

Herald Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 10 months AGO
by Herald Staff WriterCHERYL SCHWEIZER
| August 9, 2012 6:00 AM

MOSES LAKE - Frank Atkinson is the new principal at Frontier Middle School.

Atkinson is a veteran of more than 20 years in education, and "this is - I have to count it up - my 16th year as a principal," he said.

But Atkinson said he didn't intend to be a teacher when he got out of college. He was a music major, graduating from college but skeptical of a musical career. There were a lot of starving musicians out there, trying to make a living, "and I didn't want to be a starving musician," he said. He enrolled in teacher training, and discovered something. "I absolutely loved teaching kids and teaching music," he said.

That led to a career teaching kids from kindergarten through high school, he said. But he liked the middle school kids best.

Most of his career was spent in Oak Harbor and Mukilteo, he said, and after five years in educational publishing he returned to administration last year on a one-year contract in Tacoma.

"I was hoping to find a good match in a principalship," Atkinson said, and that led him to Moses Lake. A native of Spokane, "I'm an eastern Washington kind of guy," he said.

"The community really demonstrated that they care for their children. And I think that's critical," Atkinson said. Parents and students are important parts of the effort to improve education; in fact, Atkinson said middle school students are important voices when it comes to making their schools better. "Their ideas can be really helpful," he said.

Middle school kids are his favorite to teach, he said. "It's challenging and it's a lot of fun."

American schools are trying to do something that's never been done before, which is educate every child in a diverse society and help them reach their maximum potential, he said.

"I'm optimistic we're getting better," he said. Teachers have access to better information about their students and they're getting it more quickly, he said, which allows teachers to plan ways to improve their own techniques and student learning. National standards and new administrative assessments also are promising developments, he said.

Teachers, administrators, students and parents make more progress when they collaborate in the search for improvement, he said.

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Ready for the next challenge
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 20 years ago
Frontier Middle School principal wrapping up four decades in education
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years, 1 month ago
National magazine honors Whitefish band director
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 13 years, 5 months ago

ARTICLES BY HERALD STAFF WRITER

Staatses plead not guilty
November 2, 2012 6 a.m.

Staatses plead not guilty

EPHRATA - The Moses Lake couple, accused of refusing to take their child to a hospital as the boy was starving, pleaded not guilty Tuesday.

Central Wash. Home Expo this weekend
May 7, 2013 6 a.m.

Central Wash. Home Expo this weekend

MOSES LAKE - Basin residents wanting to build a new home, or renovate an existing one, can turn to next weekend's Central Washington Home Expo for inspiration.

Nurse practitioner program begins in Othello
May 6, 2014 6 a.m.

Nurse practitioner program begins in Othello

Application deadline is May 15

OTHELLO - The Columbia Basin Health Association will start a training program for nurse practitioners, beginning in September. The program's application deadline is May 15.