Former St. James principal reflects on career

WASHINGTON - Beth McBride loves St. James School so much she was the principal two separate times.

On Friday, Jan. 10, McBride retired after a collective 17-and-a-half years at St. James and a total of 43-and-a-half years in the education field.

Looking back, McBride said she never thought she would stay in Washington this long, but now, it's home.

'We were going to be here, we thought maybe three years and then move to Colorado, but here we are,” she said.

Growing up in Cedar Rapids, McBride said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher and was inspired by the educators around her to pursue that career path.

'I had some really good examples of teachers and I really liked school,” she said.

After graduating from Northeast Missouri State, now Truman State University, she taught at Dows Community School before landing in Central City where she was the vocal music teacher. There she met her husband, Doug, a band teacher.

Once they were married, an opening to be the Washington Junior High band teacher arose for her husband and they moved to town. McBride said she got a job in Sigourney then relocated to teach in the Winfield-Mt. Union School District after a few years.

While teaching at Winfield-Mt. Union, she was also taking classes at the University of Iowa to earn her Masters in Educational Administration, she said. In 1995, a principal job opened up at St. James.

Having never been a principal before, McBride said it was a big learning curve. The support from staff and families helped her through the transition and made her feel comfortable in the new role she said.

'Change is always hard. There's some learning curve that goes with change so there's always that time where you're not completely comfortable with what you're doing, but you're learning,” she said.

In 2009, she moved from St. James to the Keota Community School District where she held a variety of positions from curriculum director to dean of students.

In 2016, she was considering retirement but was unsure if that was the right choice. That same year the principal position at St. James reopened and she accepted, again.

Being gone 17 years, many changes occurred at St. James that she had to adapt to, she said.

'There were a lot of differences but there was a lot [that was] the same. What was the same was very good and what was different was very good. It is just a wonderful community and I just can't say enough good about them,” she said.

McBride said when she decided to return to St. James she knew it would only be for a short time. Three years did not seem enough and four years seemed too much, so she settled for right in the middle at three-and-a-half years.

The torch has been passed to Rebecca Clarahan who has been employed at the school for the past few years and took over as principal Monday, Jan. 13.

Now on week two of retirement, McBride says she has kept busy with various 'babysitting assignments” to visit children and grandchildren. She and her husband have multiple trips planned and are looking forward to her new found freedom to, 'do whatever I want whenever I want.”