By Kyle Vuille
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Jordan Viegut is the new Jefferson Elementary School principal.
Viegut, 30, is originally from Wisconsin, but has been a facet in the Glendive community as he served as an English teacher at Dawson County High School for two years and another two years as the curriculum director for the school system.
When Ross Farber retired as superintendent at the end of the school year, former Jefferson Principal Stephen Schreibeis was hired to take Farber’s spot.
Viegut was hired for the Jefferson position in June.
Viegut’s passion and dedication to education has stemmed from what he categorized into two different aspects.
After finishing his college education in Wisconsin, Viegut taught English in Taiwan for a year followed by another year teaching in Washington state before heading to Eastern Montana.
His experience with the younger kids preceded his formal education as he has worked as a youth counselor for four years and also worked with an after-school program where he dealt with elementary age group.
Viegut said he is excited and ready to accept the challenges of his new position, and is ready to become a part of the staff at Jefferson.
“There’s always challenges in education, physically, and sometimes culturally things we have to work,” Viegut said. “What’s awesome for me is that I’m starting my first year as a principal and I have the perfect test environment because there’s a strong staff here, a lot of talented individuals, and to be able to learn from all of them and develop really strong habits from these people will be a good asset for me.”
With his exposure to other age groups, Viegut said that there’s such a difference even between the 3-5 grades level kids and the K-2 developmentally and all require different skill sets.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with younger kids and fortunate to teach seniors. It’s just kids are kids – they’re different at every age – but ultimately they’re kids and you try to build relationships and focus on positives and try to help equip them with skills to become better and add value to their lives and other’s lives so it’s good work,” Viegut said.
He noted that he has been very fortunate to have quality educators in his life, who he said “really genuinely made me better not just as a student, but as a person.”
The overall importance of a strong education foundation in society at large is another reason for his dedication to students.
“The second thing is I really believe that a healthy community, a healthy society, has a strong education foundation, and I really think that one of the best things we can do as an investment into the future of our community, into the future of state and country is quality education and investing in that and investing in people,” he noted.
Reach Kyle Vuille at
news@rangerreview.com.