Mid-Prairie’s Pennington changing careers after 17 years with the district

After 20 years in education, Mid-Prairie Middle School Principal Marc Pennington is making a career change at the end of the current school year.

Pennington is moving from the world of education to the world of financial advising.

'I accepted a position with Northwestern Mutual out of Washington to be a financial adviser,” Pennington said. 'At the core of it, I still want to do something helping people. It's just helping people in different ways.

'I have a lot to learn, and I'm excited for that challenge. It was just the right time for me to jump into something different.”

Taking on new challenges has been a recurring theme throughout Pennington's career.

He started his career in education 20 years ago at Iowa Valley Community School District in Marengo.

He spent a year coaching basketball at Central College in Pella, before coming to the Mid-Prairie school district 17 years ago.

'My wife's sister was a teacher at the high school,” Pennington said. 'I got introduced to (Principal) Gerry (Beeler). It was a great fit for my family and for me to get back into education. Since then, it's been a nice progression.”

Pennington started as a special-education teacher at Mid-Prairie High School.

'I worked with a lot of kids who were behavior-challenged or didn't really love school,” he said. 'Seeing those kids graduate, seeing those kids participate in prom activities when they really didn't have anyone to take them, seeing kids do job shadows then continue those jobs after those internships and make good money - that was really rewarding.”

While at the high school, he was an assistant football and boys basketball coach, before becoming head girls basketball coach.

'I was head girls basketball coach for eight years and had a great experience coaching at the high school,” Pennington said. 'They were great kids, and it was a phenomenal experience. My last year, we went to the state tournament.”

He said that state tournament run was one of the highlights of his career.

'You take a program, where we took our lumps and see the progression year after year, then finally go to the state tournament in my last year,” Pennington said. 'We went to the state tournament, then this job popped open. I always say, ‘Timing is everything.'”

At the time, the district had three administrator positions open.

'This was the position that I felt was the best fit for me and my personality,” Pennington said. 'I knew there were great people here. It has been a great fit for me.”

Many educators will say that middle school is a tough assignment, but that is what attracted Pennington to the job.

'I know middle school years can be challenging for a lot of different reasons,” he said. 'The kids and the challenge of the age are what drew me to it.”

He saw rewards in having a hand in helping students grow and work their way through their middle school years.

'Being in here and seeing how kids evolve over time, seeing how things change,” he said. 'You have social relationships that are challenging. You have physical changes in your body.

'It's a real challenge for kids to try to find their fit, and it's always been my goal to try to help those years become a little less challenging.”

He said that middle school students are young enough to be guided and motivated to help them find themselves.

'Middle school is a challenging time for a lot of kids,” he said. 'Our job, a lot of the time, is to make it as easy, comfortable and interesting as we can.”

Pennington credits the entire staff for the school's success.

'The highlight here has been the staff that we hired,” he said. 'A lot of them were here when I got here, and some we've hired since I've been here. It's a team effort here to make this place what it is.

'There are a lot of opportunities for kids for a school our size for kids to get involved and find their niche. You can't do anything without good people, and the people here are phenomenal.”

As he changes careers, Pennington said that there is one particular lesson he has learned that he will take from education to his new position.

'Relationships are everything, and that really is the case, whether with kids, families, staff members, community members,” he said. 'When you treat people the right way and care about them as human beings first and students second or employees second, I think that goes a long way.”