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POSTED: Monday, May. 11, 2009

From our archives: Lehnert planned to retire after 19 years

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story about Roger Lehnert's retirement announcement originallly was published Dec. 1, 2008.

FERNDALE - After 19 years leading the Ferndale School District, and 44 years in education, Superintendent Roger Lehnert is retiring.

Lehnert, 65, said he'd been tossing around the idea of retiring for a couple years, but there were a few projects he wanted to see finished. Now that the new elementary school, Cascadia, is open, and there are plans in the works to fix the condemned North Bellingham Elementary School site for Clearview and Windward high schools, Lehnert says it's time for him to leave.

"I have learned that retirement is an emotional and somewhat cognitive process, but there comes a time when you're ready to do it," he said. "And I'm just ready to do it."

The longtime educator announced his retirement to school district staff Monday morning, Dec. 1. His last day will be June 30. The Ferndale School Board is expected to start talking soon about the search process for Lehnert's replacement.

Lehnert started in the Ferndale School District at the beginning of the 1990-91 school year. Since then, he's helped pass numerous bonds and levies, create alternative high schools Clearview and Windward, build Horizon Middle and Cascadia and Eagleridge elementary schools, and renovate the district office, Ferndale High, Central Elementary and Vista Middle schools.

Lehnert discovered Ferndale one day in the late 1980s on his way to a meeting in Vancouver, B.C. He was driving up Interstate 5 and stopped for a break. After walking around downtown and along the Nooksack River, he climbed in the car and went on his way.

When a superintendent search consultant called asking if he'd like to apply for the open Ferndale superintendent position, his immediate response was "yes."

His educational career started in 1965 in Corvallis, Ore., right after graduating from Southern Oregon University. He spent a few years in the classroom, teaching fourth grade and kindergarten, before receiving his master's degree from Oregon State University and becoming an assistant principal of a large junior high school in Corvallis at the age of 26.

He then moved to the principal position at a rural elementary school near Corvallis, letting him foster his ideal of community schools.

"A goal of mine is to always maintain the local schoolhouse and the community hub," he said.

In 1975, he and his wife moved to Richland, Wash., where he became one of two principals for a controversial K-12 school, which is now Hanford High School. After moving to another elementary principal job and the district office, Lehnert became the assistant superintendent of the Richland School District in 1985.

In July, after he no longer feels the need to clock in 14-hour work days, Lehnert will stay in the Ferndale area and spend time with his wife, Cheryl, and their two children and four grandchildren. But other than taking time off, he's not sure what retirement will hold for him.

"I'll probably stay out of schools for a while," he said. "I'll need that separation, and I don't want to be mucking around in someone else's backyard."

In his 19 years in Ferndale, Lehnert claims his biggest personal accomplishment was bringing himself into the 21st century and teaching himself technology. But the biggest accomplishment for the district during his time was building Cascadia Elementary, he said.

"I think we created a technologically correct elementary school, and we created an elementary school that almost totally will be maintenance free, and we worked hard on that," he said. "We passed a lot of bond issues, passed a lot of levies, built lots of schools, but that wasn't just me, that was we."