Anchored in Education: An Alaska Principal’s Story

Photo: Stedman Elementary Principal Heather Conn (Right) with School Special Education Teacher Heidi Cabral (Left) and the school mascot, Stedman Eagle.

All roads lead to Petersburg for Alaskan Principal Heather Conn. Overcoming generational barriers, she became the first in her family to attend college - but that was only the start of the ways she would go first in education - for her family, her community, and now, as principal of the Stedman Elementary School in Petersburg School District. Her dedication and commitment to her role were celebrated this September 28, when she was named Alaska Elementary Principal of the Year award at the Alaska Principals Conference.

Her educational journey that ultimately led back home to serve her current students spanned decades, including a road trip across the lower 48 with her children to deepen her educational expertise before she returned to Petersburg.

“I always wanted to do more,” Conn said. “So I decided I wanted to become a principal. And eventually, I knew it was time that I had to come back home.”

Homegrown Leadership

Conn now is a principal in the same area where she grew up and has seen the community grow over the years. The town of Petersburg is on Mitkof Island, situated 162 miles south of Juneau. It is accessible only by boat and by plane. When her family first moved to Petersburg from Norway in the early 1900s, the town hardly spanned three streets. Her first spark of joy in learning was lit by her grandmother, who was one of 16 children and never received more than a third-grade education. “I wanted to learn from her, but she couldn’t teach me,” Conn said.

That didn’t stop Conn from embracing education early on. As she grew up, her father built a little play schoolhouse on the side of their home for Conn to play in, and each weekend she would gather all the children in her neighborhood and bring them to the schoolhouse to “learn.”

It’s the tight-knit community that called Conn and her family home. After graduating from Whatcom Community College with a focus on Early Childhood Education, while simultaneously teaching at the Lummi Nation school on the Lummi reservation in Washington state, she returned to Alaska and proceeded to get her Elementary Education and Special Education dual degrees, all with the hopes of working in her beloved community of Petersburg. Currently, she holds three master's degrees in elementary education, special education, and educational leadership.

Petersburg School District jobs, however, were hard to come by for the best reason a district could ask for.

“It was really hard to get a job here because you just had to wait for your time. People stayed. People came here and they stayed, “Conn said. “Every single person in our building was either born here, raised here or came here because their partner was raised here. I think only three current staff members found us by chance.”

As Conn realized her opportunity to become a teacher in Petersburg School District had stagnated, she asked one of the principals if she knew what she could do to get a job in Petersburg. The principal gave her a surprising answer: Leave.

So Conn and her family piled into their car and traveled the United States for three weeks, stopping for teaching interviews in Arizona, North Carolina, and Colorado, with intermissions of family time and camping. Eventually, she found a position in Colorado. Time away gave Conn the chance to develop herself as an educator and add to her CV, building it up for the positions she was seeking in Alaska. She stayed for the duration of a grant before she reflected on coming home, equipped with more experience and knowledge, and the longing her whole family had to go back to the Last Frontier.

Community Comes First - Starting With Teachers

The high retention rate of Petersburg School District made Conn’s acceptance as a fourth-grade teacher that much sweeter - and she flourished, moving from fourth grade to Special Education, and then setting her sights on the principal position at Stedman Elementary. The second time applying was the charm.

Her journey through the ecosystem of the district and her connection to the community meant Conn knew Stedman well when she assumed the role of principal. She leads with her support and investment in teachers by building the trust, credibility, and capacity of her educators. She ensures teachers can take time away from their classrooms to observe other teachers to share instructional best practices, and watches classrooms for teachers during these moments.

“It is so important to learn from others. I don’t have all the tips or tricks for instructional best practices, so I let others support and share too. This allows them to find the power within our building. It builds the relationships across the staff and allows us to build collective efficacy in our school,” Conn said.

Another way Conn invested in her teachers is her school’s response to the Alaska READS Act, which was signed into law in 2022 and came with regulations stating K-3 teachers and administrators of those teachers needed to be READS Act Certified. Conn and her team wrote a grant known as the Comprehension Literacy State Development (CLSD), giving teachers stipends based on the time they spent outside normal contract hours on their certification. This effort helped lead to the success they see today, where every single person in Conn’s building is now READs Act certified.

“I think that when you look at this as an educator, I feel that that's a really important thing to recognize is our time,” Conn said. “We spend a lot of time - and it takes a lot of time - to develop rigorous, rich lessons that are going to motivate and engage those students.”

By investing in teachers through opportunities like the CLSD grant, Conn ensures her teachers have the time to create those rich lessons.

With all the current actions in place to help set up her staff for success, Conn continues to look ahead. This year, with the support of NIET, she is looking forward to further establishing an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and professional learning community.

“One thing that we want to develop, where NIET has come in, is our structure. What does that look like? How do we make the most out of the time that we have and be impactful in that?” Conn reflected. “These are all going to be questions we continue to answer this year to help give our teachers as much time as we can through the powerful structure.”

Leading with Joy and Patience

Throughout her education and principal journey, Conn learned that it was important to keep joy in the work principals do. When principals, new or experienced, intentionally find moments to celebrate each day, it helps keep education leaders centered around their “Why.”

For Conn, her core joy in her job comes from her interactions with the children.

“Being here for the kids every day is the most rewarding experience as a principal,” Conn said, starting to choke up. “I want them to have the most amazing experience at school and feel loved and wanted. Everything from finding a family a home when they had a horrible night and ended up becoming homeless to just helping a student who has never gone across the monkey bars going across on their own. I love being a part of it every day. It is an amazing job.”

The secondary secret spice she would recommend to new principals? Patience.

“It takes a lot of time and you need to be highly organized and structured. But also, why are we here? That’s so critical to keep in mind, and being a visible principal is so important to me and helps me stay present,” Conn said with a smile.

“After this, I'm going into a second-grade classroom to hang with those little guys and see what sounds they are working on and how they are putting those sounds together to blend them into words. And so those are my joys.”