Getting the superintendent position of Evergreen School District was serendipitous for Laurie Barron.

The vibrant Georgia native had planned to eventually move to Montana with her husband after retiring, but fate had a different plan.

Northwest Montana has held a special place for the 39-year-old and her husband. When the two first met, they discovered their shared love of Montana and Glacier National Park. Her husband had worked in Many Glacier and she had visited the park.

They have visited the Flathead Valley for the past eight years, but making the big move remained on their retirement to-do list.

Yet, following her mother’s death in March, everything fell into place for doing exactly that.

In her office at Evergreen School District, Barron recounted the events leading to becoming superintendent.

“My mom was very sick with cancer. Her birthday was last Sunday. She would have been 65 and her whole life she had waited to retire and do what she wanted to do,” Barron said.

Up to that point in Barron’s career, she had worked nine years as a middle school principal, traveled around the nation on speaking engagements and was approached by numerous people about new job possibilities.

Barron was flattered but maintained she would retire in Georgia.

During one of the last conversations with her mother, Barron was given sage advice that altered her perspective about moving.

“My mom said, ‘You need to follow your dream. Don’t do what I did.’ She said, ‘I’m not going to make it to my dreams.’ She said, ‘what do you want to do?’ I said, ‘You know what we want to do.’ She said, ‘Go to Montana, go now, don’t wait,” Barron said.

Around this time, Barron’s husband alerted her that the Evergreen superintendent’s position was open after reading The Daily Inter Lake online.

“Jokingly he said, ‘Forget all those other [job offers] opportunities, apply for this,’” Barron said.

Following her mother’s funeral, Barron learned that no one had been hired yet and the position was re-posted. It was as if her mother was giving her a nudge, Barron decided.

She started working out the logistics of moving, which included their 9-year-old daughter.

“We started talking seriously about what we wanted to do with our lives and quality of life, what was important to us,” Barron said. “It was a huge dream, a long-shot dream, a leap-of-faith dream. We said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

What attracted Barron to the position was the thoroughness, high standards and high expectations the district and school board took during the application and interview process. She also was impressed with the stability and longevity of board members, staff and administration.

In mid-April she was offered the job. She was ecstatic.

Barron began her career as a teacher. From 1996 to 2002 she taught high school English. She was earning a master’s degree in English when an assistant principal at her building encouraged her to become an administrator instead.

“I was really focused on English,” Barron said, noting that during her undergraduate years she studied abroad for a semester in England at Oxford University, a mecca for English studies. “I was also serving in some leadership roles leading different gifted and talented programs and AP classes.”

With that encouragement, Barron earned a Master of Education Administration and Supervision in 1999 and became an assistant principal in 2002. When duty called after two years, she became a middle-school principal.

While she misses teaching — and coaching varsity cheerleading — she is motivated and fulfilled in a different way as a leader.

“Leadership to me is about helping people be better today than they were yesterday. You do that if you are in the classroom, as a principal you help teachers do that, as a superintendent you help everyone in the district do that,” Barron said.

Barron has set the bar high in her professional life.

In 2003, she earned a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership degree and is currently obtaining a superintendent’s endorsement. She helped turn her last school around academically and received numerous state and national awards. The award she is most proud of was from the 2011 MetLife Foundation and National Association of Secondary Principals.

“It represented so much work of staff students and parents,” Barron said. “We turned our school around.”

It was not an easy task, Barron said. The odds were stacked against the staff of a middle school with more than 1,000 students. The school was known for low achievement, high poverty, high discipline and absenteeism. As a leader Barron took the reins, and with the support of staff turned the school climate around.

Barron said it was a “people first” approach that shaped school culture in a positive direction over time.

“What made all the difference for us is we believed in kids and we made sure kids knew it, and so kids started believing in themselves and we changed,” Barron said.

At Evergreen, her role will be quite different, but her people-first philosophy remains.

“I’ve really come into a very good situation. [My goal is] to bring some skills and strengths that I have to help the district continue to grow and improve. This district doesn’t need fixing,” Barron said.

But just in case, Barron has a replica championship-wrestling belt sitting on a shelf in her office.

The belt was given to her by teachers after she jumped over cafeteria tables multiple times to split up a student altercation during her first year as a middle-school principal.

Barron said she is excited for the new school year and glad to be part of a team of staff, board members and community committed to the district.

“I have big shoes to fill,” Barron said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.