Sean C. Morgan
New Sweet Home High School Principal Ralph Brown said he’s looking forward to settling with his family in Sweet Home.
Brown, 54, currently principal of McLoughlin High School in Milton-Freewater, was hired by the Sweet Home School Board Monday evening to take over the position vacated by Keith Winslow, who is acting as interim district superintendent.
Retired principal Pat Stineff has been serving as principal since the beginning of the year, when then-Supt. Don Schrader resigned.
Brown said his family hasn’t moved around a lot, but he and his wife, Carrie, had been looking for an opportunity to move to the west side of Oregon for a number of years.
With the graduation of their daughter, Morgen, 18, they have the chance. She plans to attend Oregon State University in the fall and their middle child, Zechariah, 14, will begin high school next year, while their youngest, Jaxsen, 12 this month, will enter the seventh grade.
Brown said he grew up in Ohio, in a poor household in the “projects.” He joined the U.S. Army, where he worked in artillery in cannon fire direction. In those days, forward observers would provide target data. Brown’s team would plot the data and send firing information to the gunners.
His first exposure to the Pacific Northwest was when he was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Wash., outside Tacoma. He left the Army after two years, working various jobs. He worked full time while attending school part time at Mt. Hood Community College where he earned an associate of arts degree.
Brown’s best friend in Ohio had gone into law enforcement, he said, and he thought he would do the same. Mt. Hood Community College offered him a position tutoring in Spanish and writing, and that changed the course of his life.
“I never really thought about being a teacher,” Brown said, but once he started tutoring, everything started falling into place for a career in education.
He moved on to Eastern Oregon University and finished a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education. He taught in Japan for two years prior to earning his master’s degree and then taught mainly social studies in grades seven through 12 in Monument for six years.
He said a friend suggested to him that, as a good teacher, Brown could positively impact an entire classroom, but as an administrator he could positively impact an entire building or district.
He earned his administrative certification through Lewis and Clark College in Portland and became vice principal at McLoughlin High School, with an enrollment of about 500, in Milton-Freewater. He became principal there in 2002.
Brown noted that his wife’s family lives on the west side of the state, in Eugene and Coos Bay, and for many years, they have talked about moving closer to her family.
Right now, the timing is perfect, he said, with his daughter attending school in Corvallis, and his sons moving into high school and junior high. Once a child is in high school, it makes it tough to move, he said.
“So we started looking over there,” Brown said. He was aware of Sweet Home through wrestling, since Mac High also has a strong wrestling program. He learned the high school had an open position, and he applied. That’s been kind of a new experience for him.
“I haven’t been looking for jobs for 16 years,” he said. “I just look forward to next year. My family and I are both excited. From everything I’ve heard, it just seems like the team atmosphere and family atmosphere I was looking for.”
He has a great staff in Milton-Freewater, he said, and he and his family are going to miss it, leaving a place and people they enjoy; but they’re looking forward to Sweet Home.
His family enjoys the outdoors, and he was excited to learn Sweet Home has a lake in town and Green Peter so close. It’s also much closer to family.
“I think it’ll be a good fit for my family,” Brown said. He expects to settle in Sweet Home until retirement in eight to 10 years. He was looking for some place he and his family could stay.
Carrie Brown has been a teacher’s aide with special needs children in preschool for the past two years, Brown said. She will look for a position here after moving and settling.
“I am very excited to be moving that direction,” Brown said. “From the little we’ve been able to see, it’s a dream town for us.”