Jeff Elliott has returned home to Boulder as the Boulder Elementary School superintendent and principal.
Elliott, 55, a Boulder native and lifelong educator, was appointed to the position by the Boulder Elementary School Board of Trustees this summer, following the departure of longtime superintendent and principal Maria Pace, who held the role since 2012 and left at the end of the past school year.
Before he began his career in education, Elliott attended Boulder Elementary, where his mother, Shirley Elliott, was a 3rd grade teacher. He graduated as part of the Jefferson High School class of 1984. His father, Hank Elliott, was the physical education teacher and vice principal there.
His parents still live in the same Boulder home where they raised Elliott, and he lives there again too.
“I have a lot of memories of both Boulder Elementary and Jefferson. Too many to even mention. I got into education because of all the great teachers I had in my years in Boulder and Jefferson,” Elliott said.
He then graduated from the University of Montana Western in 1989 with a degree in elementary education.
From there, Elliott taught in Thompson Falls and then moved to Belgrade, where he taught and coached basketball at Belgrade Middle School for 20 years. While there, he led the program to two state championship appearances in the 1992-93 and 2003-04 seasons.
His next move was a jump to assistant principal at Belgrade, then he was the principal of Fergus High School in Lewistown before becoming Three Forks superintendent in 2018. He resigned from the superintendent position in December of 2020, effective at the end of his contract there on July 1 of this year.
“I was in Three Forks my last three years and we accomplished some amazing things in my time there. [Three Forks] is in the middle of a $25 million dollar bond that we got passed last May,” Elliott said.
In Elliott’s resignation letter, he cited “family reasons” as the impetus for his departure.
“I just wanted to be around to help my parents and my aunt, who I am very close to as well, [and who] need help,” Elliott clarified.
As for why he has decided to return to his alma mater, “I think the biggest reason I am back is that this job gives me the opportunity to still interact with kids as well as teachers. As a superintendent, you are the financial person, but don’t get a lot of interaction with ‘teaching’ and learning. I want to be a part of that. I was a teacher for 21 years and I love to see quality instruction,” Elliott explained.
Although Pace, the outgoing superintendent and principal, announced her resignation earlier this year, she won’t be leaving the elementary school entirely. She accepted a position as director of special education with the Prickly Pear Cooperative, which serves Jefferson County and surrounding areas through occupational therapy, physical therapy, school psychology and speech-language therapy. She will also remain a resident of Boulder.
For Elliott, he said he looks forward to continuing what Pace built at the elementary school: “Not only do we have an amazing staff and students, but our board and community is extremely supportive.”
Looking forward, Elliott hopes in the short term to share school accomplishments with the community through regular updates of the website and Facebook page.
“Long term,” Elliott explained, “as with most current superintendents, is trying to utilize the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to the best of our ability. The government has given us an abundance of funds and one of our main responsibilities is to be frugal and make sure we are using those funds to best support our students and staff.”
ESSER was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act—a March 2020 pandemic relief package commonly referred to as the CARES Act—and awarded funds to schools in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In total, Montana received $618 million dollars, with Boulder Elementary getting $815,000.
