La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

New La Conner Schools administrator Tanya Houle is fond of hats.

Good thing, too, since she will be wearing several in her dual role as La Conner Middle and High School assistant principal and career and technology education (CTE) director.

The personable Houle wears a smile as often – if not more – than her stylish headpieces.

Her approach to school administration is to lead with compassion and create safe and meaningful learning environments for all students.

"A couple of my primary goals will be to make connections and build relationships," said Houle, who hails from Belcourt, North Dakota. She has spent more than two decades in education, most recently as a teacher and administrator in the Marysville School District.

In Marysville she taught two years at Quil Ceda Elementary on the Tulalip Reservation.

Being raised on a reservation – Houle is an Anishinaabe Metis enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa – she knows the challenges native people face along with the need to bridge gaps to academic success with culturally responsive teaching approaches.

Houle started here at the district's summer adventure camp, an ideal atmosphere to put in motion her professional vision of serving with a strong work ethic and passionately leading a school culture embracing community values.

"The people here are so welcoming," she told the Weekly News, after a clam bake at the Thousand Trails Lone Tree Point RV Resort Lodge. "I noticed right away how the children will come up to talk and are so friendly.

"It reminds me of home," she said, "except the trees here are bigger."

Houle uprooted from the Great Plains with her husband, Mark, due to his employment with the BNSF Railway. He is Mandan/Hidatsa of the Three Affiliated Tribes from New Town, North Dakota. They moved first to Colorado and then to Washington state. Along the way, she continued to teach, instructing at various levels, including CTE courses.

She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of North Dakota and a master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. She is certified as a principal at all grade levels and holds a special education endorsement.

Houle has an innate ability to relate to students. Her office is their office. "It's really not my office," Houle stressed. "It's a shared space. The door is always open." She has sought student input on how to decorate it.

"They said, 'we need to get a couch," she grinned.

"My philosophy," she added, "is I want to be in the classrooms with the students and staff. I want to be part of their school day. And my goal is that the students want to be here."

Houle knows bits of the Cree language from her youth. She is glad that Lushootseed, to which she was introduced at Tulalip, is taught here.

"That's a real crossover benefit," she pointed out.

Houle said she will be an advocate for equitable education for all students.

She is committed to make things run as smoothly as possible. "Whatever (Principal) Christine (Tripp) and the teachers need," she said, "I'm there to help."

She is looking forward to students and staff becoming her extended family.

The Houles have five children and eight grandchildren, with a ninth on the way, due in October.