Halstead Middle School’s McKee earns regional education honors

As Matt McKee strolls through hallways hung with brightly rendered illustrations of water systems, a student darts through an empty hall like a mouse startled by a kitchen light.

McKee calls out his name and greets him with a wave and a smile. The boy, laden with books, sheepishly grins back.

McKee, the principal at Halstead/Bentley Middle School, said he tries to take a personal interest in all his students — to make his school like a family.

“I try to know as many names as I can,” he said. “I think it makes a difference to kids to know that you care.”

However, kids can be shy, he said.

“I am still the principal,” he said.

He said it was that family kind of experience in school that led him to become an educator.

“My teachers always said, ‘Matt, you will learn in school.’ It was a good place to be. That is what I want for my students and teachers. I want them to be happy when they are in my building.”

After more than 30 years of working as a coach, teacher and administrator, McKee, 52, was named a top secondary principal for this region by the Kansas Association of Secondary School Principals.

He is in his third year as the principal at Halstead/Bentley Middle School.

Although the school is called a middle school, the title does not accurately describe the diversity of students in his care.

The school houses students in fourth through eighth grades in addition to the district’s Head Start program.

McKee said going from the elementary wing with its colorful artwork and bouncing children to the middle school wing with its clanging lockers is like marching into a different landscape.

“The elementary kids are fun and happy,” he said. “When I have to deal with junior and senior high school students, I have to remember to lower my voice and tone. How I deal with a fourth grader is completely different than how I would deal with an eighth grader. ... The secret of any school is to meet everyone on their own level.”

As a long-time teacher, McKee said he also pays special attention to the needs of his teachers.

“I have been lucky,” he said. “I have always been on good teams. I have had good teachers and good coaches and a successful staff,” he said. “Leading is one thing, but you have to have people who will follow and work as a team.”

Serving the needs of students and teachers has become increasingly harder as millions have been cut from education budgets because of state revenue shortfalls as a result of the recession.

But McKee said he is proud of his teachers and students, who continue to perform well despite increasing pressure from budget cuts and requirements of No Child Left Behind.

“It is not about the federal numbers,” McKee said. “We are in the people business. We have to focus on people. I respect teachers and what they are doing in their field. I try to give them real leadership power.”

McKee said it is not just teachers who struggle with the challenges facing this generation of educators.

McKee said he gets frustrated and, as administrator, sometimes feels distanced from the students — the reason he became a teacher.

But then there is a light at the end of the tunnel — something to lift his spirits.

Amidst sports memorabilia and pictures of his family he produced a homemade book of construction paper and string.

“Some of my students made this for me. No one told them to do it. They just did it as a thank you,” he said. “I was having a tough week. I really needed that. It makes me feel as if I have made a difference in someone’s life.”