After 30 years of being in schools, teaching students the ways of life and dealing with the day to day business of life in a school, NSS principal Kees van der Pol is retiring from his career in education.

Van der Pol is taking his “Freedom 55” opportunity as he celebrated his birthday earlier this month, leaving him retired from the school as of midnight, the morning of Nov. 1. He says he’s excited about the retirement, and will take with him memories which will take him until the end of the road.

“It’s my life,” he says, as he spreads his arm out to show the expanse of memorabilia which covers the walls of his office in the school. “School is my life, has been for 30 years and my wife will say it’s been too much of my life. That’s my wall of fame there, and so many memories are tied up in all of that. So, it’s very exciting to be retiring. Can I handle retirement? I hope so. I’m going to miss so much of this. I love the kids, I love the school, I love the staff.”

What kept van der Pol going everyday was his love for the job, his enthusiasm to be at the school everyday and to deal with whatever issues may arise.

“What keeps me going, what kept me going ... and still keeps me going for a few more days, is that it’s like the Forrest Gump movie. Sitting here, every day, you never know what life gives you,” van der Pol explains. “That part is really exciting in the sense that my day is never dull. Everyday goes by very quickly. That’s what I’ve always said. I love coming to work, I love it here all day, but I also love going home.”

Schooling has changes significantly since van der Pol stepped into the office. Attitudes of the kids, staff and parents have changed noticeably over the past 15 years van der Pol has been behind the big desk at NSS.

“Celebrations were always the best part, when we acknowledge the good things that have happened at the school,” he explains. “We used to, in my first years, worry about the kids that would skip out. We don’t anymore, because that immediately started a negative attitude towards our celebration. I have shifted my feeling; rather than push them in there, to pull them in there. Let’s make them want to come. The kids are well-behaved. It’s a good school. I wouldn’t have stayed for 15 years if it weren’t.

“... There’s been a huge shift, I believe, in terms of parent views of our school.”

But in saying that, he did have opportunities where he could have switched to another school district, but after having already made three major moves in his career, settling in Nakusp and coming to school everyday made it worth being here.

“I wanted this to be where I finished my career,” says van der Pol. “I just assumed every year that I would still be here.”

But, while he talks about his love for the job, there have been ups and downs. The ups being the responsible students, who van der Pol says understand vandalism is needless, and when things happen such as a window being knocked out in the school, usually the student is apologizing within five minutes, explaining it was an accident. “We do not have an RCMP patrolling our school, we don’t need it,” he says. “Are there issues with drugs and alcohol in the school? Absolutely. Are there issues with kids not doing well academically? Yeah. Do we have problems with behaviour? Yeah. It’s just like every other school. Is it manageable? Absolutely.”

He gives two reasons for his early departure, saying he could have easily stayed for another three years to increase his pension, but it wasn’t worth dealing with some of the reasons for his leaving.

“There’s been way too much choice over the decades of education, and I think it’s had a detriment,” he says. “Choice in terms of curriculum, in terms of resources, in terms of what kids are able to do. The changes that have gone on over the grad programs over the years — I’m secondary. We have kids taking classes from Nelson, Abbotsford, all online. Part of that is really neat, but too much choice is also too much of a good thing.”

The second reason he gives for taking an early retirement is the “downloading” of extra responsibilities onto schools from the Ministry of Education.

“In my position, so much has been downloaded onto the school, that I’m not able to do the things that I love to do because of all the paperwork, the accountability — it’s not a little bit, it’s a lot. The tracking, it’s horrendous ... The teachers in our school particularly have horrible teaching assignments because of our small size. They’re teaching outside their areas of expertise and they’re doing a fantastic job ... You wouldn’t see the teacher loads in other districts in what you see here. They’re working really hard at making this school a positive place and I think one of the big things I’ve noticed over the years is we’re very accommodating, exceptionally accommodating, perhaps to our detriment.”

In the meantime, vice-principal Susan Paterson, a Nakusp Secondary graduate circa 1972, will be taking over the position of interim principal. “I have the utmost confidence in her as a principal of our school,” says van der Pol. “I’m glad she’s accepted it. It’s going to be harder because she’ll be alone, she will not have a vice-principal ... she’s a wonderful lady with a great rapport with everybody.”

The retiree says many people have asked what he will be up to when he leaves. He says 80 per cent of his family is still in Holland and 100 per cent of his wife’s family is in Japan, so doing more travelling to visit family is on the agenda, but what he’s been telling people is that he’s going to be sitting on his deck, watching the world go by ... and watching students walk to school.

One of the major thank-yous van der Pol acknowledged regarding his teaching career went out to his wife, Mayumi. “I could not have had such a wonderful teaching career, vice-principal career, principal career, without the support of my wife, Mayumi,” he says. “She’s been behind me 100 per cent and I’ve put her through some pretty tough times, especially at the beginning, and we’re still together. I just want to thank her from the bottom of my heart that my life in school has been so wonderful.”