Sullivan reflects on 40-year teaching career

The understanding of DNA structure was in the early stages of discovery when Colleen Sullivan first arrived in Whitefish for a teaching position. Girls athletics was just beginning at the high school, and grades were still kept on a single handwritten mastersheet.

Throughout her nearly 40-year career as a biology and physical education teacher and coach at all three schools in the district, Sullivan has seen many changes and been somewhat of a pioneer through them all.

She was likely the first woman to teach science at the high school. She coached the school’s first volleyball team. And she was one of the first to keep grades electronically.

With plans to retire in June, Sullivan readily acknowledges the wide-reaching impact she’s had on the thousands of students who’ve passed through her classroom or listened to her in a pre-game huddle over the decades.

“This school’s been my life, there’s no doubt about it,” she said from her classroom on the second floor of the new high school. “But I’m here so much because I want to be. I choose to be here.”

Raised in Billings, Sullivan first came to Whitefish in 1978 after two years teaching in Baker.

Then superintendent Russ Giesy interviewed her for a physical education opening and she was hired.

“I remember coming here to teach PE at a high school without a gym,” Sullivan said, chuckling.

The high school gym had burned down and hadn’t yet been rebuilt. So Sullivan was forced to get creative with her classes, especially in the dead of winter. Softball in the snow was a regular activity. So were cross-country skiing, bowling and many matches of ping pong.

“The kids bought into it,” she said. “Every day was an adventure.”

Along with teaching during her first year in Whitefish, Sullivan also took on coaching duties for JV basketball, track, volleyball and cheerleading advisor. The girls basketball team won the school’s first and only state championship that season with Sullivan as a varsity assistant under Craig Audet.

“Starting with a state championship set the bar pretty high, but I’ve added a few more to it,” she said.

She ended her track career with a state title, then got in on a few volleyball titles in the early 2000s.

In fact, it was Sullivan who helped usher in the school’s first volleyball team.

“That winter we were ordered to have a winter sport for girls,” she recalled. “It was right at the early days of Title Nine. We chose volleyball and we didn’t have an opponent.”

“I’ve been around girls athletics all the way through.”

She coached track from 1978 to 1984, volleyball in 1978-79 then again from 2003-08 and in 2015. She only led cheerleading for her first two years in Whitefish.

“That wasn’t my cup of tea,” she joked.

In the classroom, she made the switch from PE to biology in 1986.

“We had an opening in science and I thought it would be interesting to get into it,” she said.

“It’s changed a lot,” she added. “I started teaching around plant and animal systems. Now, it’s much more at a molecular level. Today, by the time the kids get to high school, they know the whole DNA structure.”

In a class last week her students were performing gene transformations between jellyfish and bacteria.

“Those that were successful got their bacteria to glow under UV light,” she said. “It’s an aha moment for them.”

She says teaching now is much more interactive than it was when she started out.

“It’s about posing a question and letting them do the digging,” she said. “They are much more active learners.”

“You feed off the kids’ energy. They’re excited to learn and it’s been fun to challenge them.”

She credits a number of former teachers, coaches and administrators as elevating and guiding her career. Teachers like Bob McLeod and Bill Schustrom.

“I learned a lot from those two gentlemen,” she said.

“Bob Lawson, he was probably my first mentor in education,” Sullivan added.

She also gives credit to John Morris, Nikki Carlson, and fellow coaches Jackie Fuller and Audet.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but she knew it was time to step away from her career after the sudden passing of her mother last winter.

“I was pondering retirement and [after the death] felt it was better to be available to my family,” she said.

She’s unsure what she will do next, but is ready for the adventure.

“This is the first time I will not go to summer school in 20 years, so I have a summer to myself,” she said with her signature smile.

As for advice she’d give to the teacher who fills her shoes — have fun and enjoy the ride.

“The kids are terrific,” she said. “Engage them and have fun with them. It’s been a dynamic opportunity to teach at this district and with the people here.”