End of an Era For Pair of Principals

Like any close friends, Bev Eastman and Kevin Brooks can finish each other’s sentences. They have years of shared memories, shared laughs, shared tears.

Their friendship has been cultivated over the past two decades from a pair of elementary schools just a mile and a half apart.

Therefore, it only seems fitting that the two principals are retiring together, as Eastman leaves Custer Elementary School and Brooks departs Dower Elementary School.

Their last day is technically Thursday, but Brooks left Dower in June 2010 to have a brain tumor removed. She initially planned to return for her 27^th year as principal, but decided this spring that it wasn’t feasible.

“I can’t see,” she said simply, indicating the black patch over her left eye.

As for Eastman, who has presided over Custer for 19 of her 41 years in education, “I don’t have the energy anymore to do the job. It has massively expanded from what it was when we started … It’s time for somebody with younger eyes and more energy to take over.”

That job is actually something neither ever expected to do.

Brooks, a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, taught elementary school for the first portion of her 37-year career.

“Mine was a fluke,” she said. “I’d been in Europe and my certification was expiring, so I went and got my administrative certification.”

Eastman, who earned her undergraduate degree from Washington State University and her administrative certification from PLU–“But I’m not a Lute; I’m a Coug”–taught junior high and high school before taking the role of the district’s special-education coordinator.

Brooks remembers those days.

“I was afraid of you,” she said.

Eastman started laughing as her friend hastened to explain.

“She always dressed so nice,” she said. “Bev always looked so classy.”

Their paths crossed again since Eastman’s daughter, Megan, now 29, attended Dower. Brooks’ daughter, Molly, 25, also went there.

In addition to watching their kids–their daughters and their students–grow up, they have watched their staffs evolve. Neither Dower nor Custer has a high rate of turnover–maybe one or two teachers leave every year.

The people are what they will miss.

“I told one teacher that I hired a long time ago, ‘You guys have grown up, and I’ve grown old,’ ” Eastman said. “I’m not old, but you know …”

Brooks agreed, adding, “It is like growing up together.”

However, both said they have seen a shift in their schools’ student populations over the years. 

Brooks called it “more stable; more middle class” in her early years at Dower. Eastman said that when she started, less than 40 percent of Custer’s students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. Now it is between 75 and 80 percent.

“Lots of both of our (schools’) families work minimum-wage jobs, so lots of times, the hours they keep, their kids spend a fair amount of time home alone,” Eastman said. “Apartment kinds of latch-key kids. All of these parents, they certainly love their kids, but it’s difficult for them to provide for them.”

Brooks said that during holidays or school vacations, many of her students “don’t know where their meals will come from.”

The other major change has been technology.

“When I came here,” Eastman said, “there were no computers.”

Brooks laughed. “We didn’t know how to use them.”

Both said that among their proudest moments was Custer and Dower being the only two Clover Park School District elementary schools to make Annual Yearly Progress this year. Both schools were among 50 state winners of a Title I Improvement Award worth $5,500.

Having ever evolving academic standards hasn’t made their jobs any easier, though.

“It’s really hard … and it’s getting harder and harder,” Brooks said.

Eastman added that there is a lot more accountability–“but having all of the resources to provide what the kids need to make progress is difficult.”

Before packing up her office, Eastman had one important task to finish: writing on every student’s report card. It isn’t common practice for a principal–Brooks only did it for graduating fifth graders–but Eastman learned of someone doing it at a conference “and it became an obsession.”

With three days of school left and only a kindergarten and third-grade class to go, she looked a little wistful.

“Every morning, I get up and I say this is the last time that I’m doing this …”

They won’t miss everything, though.

“I don’t have to get up at 5 a.m. anymore,” Brooks said.

“The paperwork,” Eastman added.

Naturally, the pair plans to stay close friends. Both Lakewood residents, they have visions of mornings at Starbucks and taking their dogs for walks–once Brooks gets one, that is.

Down the road, they may team up to supervise teachers or principals at the college level.

“She can’t get rid of me,” Brooks said with a laugh.

What will change, though, is that on Thursday, both will walk out of their offices for the last time as principals.

“It was really hard,” Eastman said of making the decision to retire. “I’ve been thinking about it all year long … but to actually come to the point to say it was the end, and to write a retirement letter, it was difficult.”

To a degree, Brooks has already experienced the loss, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

“I didn’t say goodbye,” she said. “It’s too hard–I’d cry.”