Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Dave Goetz is the new vice principal at Sweet Home High School.
He succeeds Damond Montieth, who served in the position for one year. Montieth took a position in a Southern Oregon school district. He joins Athletic Director Larry Johnson, who has come out of retirement to fill in for Steve Emmert who has taken a position in Sherwood School District.
Geotz is a 1979 graduate of Roseburg High School. He attended Southern Oregon State College for a semester, but with the birth of a son, he moved back to Roseburg and went to work in local timber mills.
When his mill shut down, he got the opportunity to go to school and attended Umpqua Community College in Roseburg in the early 1990s. He transferred to Southern Oregon where he earned his bachelor’s degree in health promotion and fitness management in 1996.
His first teaching job was physical education and health at Sutherlin High School. He also served as head track coach. About two months into the job, he was approached about becoming the district athletic director.
He remained there until 2000. While there, he began working on his administrative degree at the University of Oregon.
In 2000, he accepted a position as principal’s assistant at Siuslaw High School in Florence. He was there a year before becoming assistant principal at St. Helen’s High School. Last year, he was the K-12 coordinator for education programs and special projects in St. Helen’s.
The character of St. Helen’s is changing, he said, and “I wanted to get back into a small-school setting. I liked the more rural type atmosphere. I’ve always liked the greater Albany area. I like the area.”
St. Helen’s is becoming more like the Beaverton Hills, and that’s not his style. That’s part of the reason he wanted to come to Sweet Home.
Goetz enjoys the outdoors, he said, but he likes the fact Sweet Home is still close to the cities.
As an educator, he likes a “nurturing, caring environment, one that promotes taking chances, thinking outside the box,” he said. He expects a job to be fun, and “Our job is fun … if the kids come here and they want to learn.”
As vice principal, Goetz is primarily involved in discipline. For him that means “being proactive, working with kids and changing their behavior.”
He is rewarded when he sees a student’s behavior has changed, he said. “At the end of the year when staff and the community see changes, that’s what drives me.”
Many times, schools are reactive with behavior issues, he said, but they need to be proactive to be successful.
That means students need to be given expectations ahead of time, with expectations spelled out, he said. It also means people need to be treated consistently from one to another.
Goetz tries to be friendly and interactive with students, he said. He loves being around students and their activities. “I also like to watch the non-athlete kids do stuff when they’re successful. I think that the connections you make with kids at outside activities is important. I like to watch kids perform whatever they’re performing.”
Coming to Sweet Home recently, Goetz is impressed, he said. It’s a “very friendly, very clean community with lots of growth potential. I think the community is a very caring community for education. Everybody I’ve met is very friendly,” and it has a “welcoming environment.
“I plan on being in the community. I plan on being involved in the community.”
Goetz believes strongly that administrators should be involved in community service organizations, clubs and projects. He plans to get as involved as he can, to be a part of the community.
“I plan on being here a long time,” Goetz said. “This is the type of culture that I like. I like the hardworking, roll-up-those-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty (approach).”