Coupeville Sports

Steve King, enjoying island life with his wife and grandson.

He’s island hopping.

When Coupeville Schools Superintendent Steve King departs at the end of this school year, he and his wife are moving to Hawaii, and he’s returning to his roots as a teacher.

The 2024-2025 school year will see King teach PE and health at Kulanihako’i High School in Kehei on Maui.

That’s a new school, constructed and opened just last year.

It’ll be a fairly quick turnaround for King, as he begins his new gig July 31, with the Hawaiian school year kicking off Aug. 1.

That brings to an end a 27-year run in Washington state schools.

Six of those were as a teacher, 11 as a principal, and ten as a superintendent, with his Coupeville run covering 2018-2024.

He tendered his resignation in January and will be replaced by Shannon Leatherwood.

A huge part of the lure of Hawaii, other than the chance to bring his golf game to the sun-drenched links, is family.

King’s daughter and grandson, who is 18 months old, reside on Maui.

“We want to be able to spend more time with them,” he said. “The additional benefit is being able to enjoy outdoor activities that I enjoy every month of the year.”

While he will look back on his time in administration with pride, burnout is a concern.

Even in the best of times, being a superintendent in a 24-7-365 plugged-in world is taxing, but add in the pandemic and budget cut battles, and King has seen the need for a change,

“Since March of 2020 this job has been extremely stressful and to be completely honest, I am tired,” he said.

“For my own health and well-being, I need to step away from administration for a while and return to the classroom.”

Doing so as a health and PE teacher, jobs he began his education career in, offers a way to recharge and revitalize.

“The best part of my job this year has been opening the gym before school on Wednesday’s and working out with students,” King said.

“I look forward to being able to do that on a daily basis.”

Coupeville’s superintendent has been very open about his desire to promote health, and the benefits of quality eating habits and exercise.

His new job is perfectly in line with that.

“This will be returning to my teaching roots and something that I am passionate about,” King said.

“Hawaii is sort of a dream place to do this work as we can enjoy year-round local produce and outdoor activities throughout the year.

“The lifestyle there is also much more relaxed, which is something that is appealing right now.”

While teaching is in his immediate future, beyond that the horizon is wide open.

“I am considering options beyond teaching in the future,” King said. “It is possible that I will return to coaching athletics as I did before I became a principal.

I was a golf coach at Mount Baker High School, where we often had to pick range balls out of the frozen mud,” he added with a laugh. “No frozen mud in Maui…”

A return at some point to administration is a possibility, but only if he believes he is able to deliver at a high level.

“To be fair to myself and whoever my employer would be, I need to make sure that I have the energy and enthusiasm for the job,” King said.

“One other passion of mine is to eventually become a Functional Health Coach. I may pursue this while I am teaching, or it may be something I do in my retirement.”

King remains proud of the work accomplished in Coupeville during his time here.

In particular, he points to “the growth of our student services program, including regular resource fairs,” and “establishing a strong Special Programs department providing services in areas such as special education, highly capable, and migrant programs.”

Guiding the district through the pandemic while projecting optimism, especially during a time when state officials seemingly changed rules hour by hour, was incredibly draining but rewarding.

Also, a major point of pride for King is the district’s Connected Food Program, “which has doubled our daily meal participation and shown that real food cooked with love is something our students want and deserve.”

As he departs, the superintendent who walked to work every day and “loved Coupeville and was thankful to live in such a beautiful place,” hopes to be remembered as someone who deeply cared.

“I loved (my) students,” King said.

“I stood my ground when it came to my strong convictions,” he added, “(But) hopefully people will remember that I took the time to listen and showed kindness.

“Finally, hopefully they will remember that I realized when it was time for the district to bring in new leadership and have a fresh start after some very difficult years.”

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