OUTLOOK - It's the end of another academic year at Outlook High School.
With just a little more than 24 hours left in the month of June and grad being held the previous evening, students on this particular day are stopping in to pick up their report cards before heading out and officially kicking off their summer vacations.
But with the end of another year comes the news of an upcoming departure from the 'Home of the Blues'.
Kim Sobkowicz, a dedicated teacher who started educating in the classrooms of OHS beginning in 1995, has decided to call it a career.
The longtime educator, who not only taught classes such as Physics and Law (the latter of which was thoroughly enjoyed by this reporter during his time as an OHS student), but has also served as both Outlook High School's acting principal and vice principal, will finish up his time in the classrooms and hallways a few weeks into the upcoming new school year in September, when principal Colette Evans is expected to return from maternity leave.
Sitting down to discuss his career and what the future may look like for him, Sobkowicz says the decision to formally retire actually came to him a few years ago, but life just had a unique way of pushing it more and more along the proverbial trail.
"I considered it when I was at 30 years, so that was five and a half years ago, but my wife had just gotten into education and had only been teaching for three or four years," said Kim, speaking with The Outlook. "So, I just thought that I was in a good spot with Walter (Wood), as he'd just come in as Principal, and it was fun to work with him. Because my wife was just starting her career, I thought, 'Well, I'll keep going for a year or two and go from there', and it just kept going. Colette Evans, our current principal who I'm covering for; when Walter retired, we encouraged her to apply and then she got the job, and then of course she had to go on maternity leave, and I opted to stay and help her for a year and help her get her feet under her, and then she went on another maternity leave, so now I've been here for another year. But it's been fun because of where the staff is; they've evolved and matured, and they understand what the atmosphere is like. When you're surrounded with people who have energy and they're good people, it's fun. I don't mind being at the helm. We're in a good place here right now as a building and as the Blues. It just kept snowballing. 'This was a good year, I'll go one more, and THIS was a good year, I'll go one more!'"
Kim, who grew up in Rosthern, says being in education can be a lot like any other job where there are positives and negatives. The key, though, is making sure that those positive ones are more and more consistent.
"The job has its up and downs like any job, with bad days here or there," he said. "There's stuff to do that you kind of wish you didn't have to deal with, but it's part of the job and you just do it and move on. The rest has been fun. If it's not fun, you're not going to hang around, right?"
Sobkowicz's career started at the tail end of the 1980's, with the lion's share of it being spent locally at OHS. Starting his teaching journey in a Saskatoon school, he soon realized that he was looking for somewhere smaller, looking to make a better and deeper connection with students.
"This will be 35 and a half years, plus an internship, so 36 years," he said, when asked how long he's been in education. "Twenty-eight of those years have been here at OHS. I started my internship at E.D. Feehan (Catholic High School) in Saskatoon and I started teaching there for half a year. I'm an oddball; I was done my degree in December, so I was able to teach already in January. I taught for six months at E.D. Feehan and it was a good thing, as I realized that being in a city and a city school wasn't for me. It's too big. I mean, I got to know the kids, but the school at that time had maybe double the 300 kids that we have here now. I might have known maybe 100 kids out of that 600-800. It wasn't a bad atmosphere at all, and so I ended up in Whitewood, and Kim and I started our family in Whitewood in 1988. We were there for seven years, and then we decided that with two kids, we wanted to move closer to our families because she's from Waldheim, down the road from Rosthern. We chose to move close, but not too close. Then, I eventually saw the advertisement that came up for a job here, and I got the job."
Getting involved in the then-growing computer world after graduating high school in 1983, it was Kim's love of school that drew him back to the education world.
"Honestly, when I look back, I graduated in 1983 and the school was lucky if it had two or three Commodore or Apple computers, and I started off in computer science," he said. "After a year of doing computer science and programming specifically, and having to create an airline reservation system as a final project with the understanding that when you build these things, you're going to be on-call 24/7 to fix, and while the pay was good, it was the stress. The reason I got into education is because it was always something I'd considered. When I was in school, I loved it. I loved my teachers, and it was a good setting in Rosthern for me at the time. I had a class where I had one prof and the education program at Medicine Hat College where I was playing college hockey, and they had a practicum where we were placed in schools, and I knew that was definitely where I wanted to go."
Moving to Outlook in the summer of 1995 with his wife Kim and two young kids, Sobkowicz says that Outlook's landscape and quieter nature were factors that drew him to the community.
"There were a number of communities that had come up at the time for postings," he explained. "I applied for several at the time; Davidson was one, Lanigan was another, Outlook was one. We toured the town and we just loved the look and feel of the community. This was the one we decided we wanted, and the river was part of why, but also the fact that the community was well-kept, well-maintained and vibrant. We were looking for a quieter community, and that was part of what drew us here to Outlook."
Being the youngest teacher on the staff at the time, Kim soon came to know his colleagues, who made him feel welcome. He saw that Outlook High School was a vibrant place and very soon realized that this would be a place that would be hard to leave.
"I loved it," he said. "I knew one staff member already through hockey, Bob Braybrook. When I came here, I was 30 years old, and other than one or two people, I was the youngest on-staff, and it was that way for a few years. It was a cohesive group and they all worked well together. The activities here, including the fact that they had very strong sports programs at the time such as basketball; it was just awesome and you saw that excellence was a big part of things and doing your best all the time. When you surround yourself with good people or you join a group of good people, you like to stay."
With a length history as Kim has at OHS, he says there are probably too many fun or heartfelt memories to name off the top of his head, but it was the comradery between himself and his colleagues that will always stay with him, despite the names and faces that have come and gone through the hallways.
"Too many to name," he remembered. "Some of the staff get-togethers with some of the older names through the years, and I'm talking Mitch Marushechka, Blake Lyons, Bob Braybrook, Lyle McKellar, Wayne Sandbeck, John McPhail, Charlotte Maupin, Rosemarie Tam, and those are just some of them because there are lots more. Get-togethers after hours with staff like that were always fun. As well, any time we had provincial runs for volleyball, basketball, badminton, football, and seeing those banners up on the wall; those are exciting times in the building, just to see the school come together and support those teams, those are favorite memories. I'm proud to be a Blue and I'm proud of what the school is. The renovations in 1999, when we added the library, moved the office here and updated most of the classrooms. Then, when I started principalship and adding on to the PA shops and the commercial cooking spaces, and seeing the kids enjoy those new spaces, that's another great memory. Being in the classroom with Calculus and Physics, you get to work with kids that are motivated. They challenge you, and that for me is a good memory. I've had very few students achieve 100 in class, and I had one this year, and in fact, he was a student who just graduated here."
One of the things that makes OHS special in Kim's mind is the way that the staff find ways to come into their own and stand out as teachers.
"For me, right now, the way this school is in terms of the atmosphere having changed, the staff has come into its own," he said. "There are cycles with both students and staff, and most of the staff that are here are kind of like how I was when I first arrived. They're career staff teachers who've been here for a while and they want to stay here, and they're finding their roles and fitting in. When I started as Principal, it was a steep learning curve for me as it was kind of handed to me. There were a few mistakes made that had to be ironed out, and so it was really busy. And then, after I had to address some personal family matters, it was a bit of a down time for me, and then I saw that staff had matured and had become leaders in their own right. For me, the special part right now is just the environment. The staff is great to work with, and we have a lot of fun despite how hectic it's been this year."
It was earlier this year that Sobkowicz actually made the decision to formally retire, and while he jokes about slacking off and throwing responsibilities to someone else, he says that there came a point where he stopped paying attention to the calendar, at which point the time seemed to jet by without a moment's notice.
"As hectic as it's been this year, it's been fun," he said. "I hit January when I actually retired and started that process, but I was still working. I was jokingly counting the days and throwing comments to some of the staff when they come to me with a problem - 'I don't care. It's not my problem, I'm retired!' Of course, I supported them because it was a joke, and that happened for maybe a couple of weeks, and then as we got through to Easter and the break, I hadn't been counting the days and people were suddenly asking me, 'Are you counting the days?' Well, I WAS, but I really haven't because it's been fun. Being busy, but being busy in a good way, is fun."
Kim says it'll be seeing the students that he'll miss about coming to work every day, as it's that connection with youth that has helped drive him in his career. He'll also miss his fellow staff members, a group of which he's now the longest-serving educator beside one other fellow OHS mainstay.
"The students, for sure," he said, when asked what he'll miss about the school. "This second semester, I wasn't in the classroom as I was full-time in the office, and I could tell that I missed that. It's a connection with the kids, first and foremost. Seeing kids in the hallways and interacting with them is different than being in the classroom or on a sports team with them. I'm also going to miss being around the staff. Sheila (Halseth) has been here longer than I have, and I told her that when I was leaving, I was going to drag her out of here with me, but she's dug her heels in, and good for her."
Sobkowicz has taught generations of kids in Outlook for over 25 years, and in the wintertime, those in the community can typically see him out on the ice as a senior official in many hockey games, keeping the peace in another setting that changes from the classroom to the rink. In fact, it was just after this reporter left his office that Kim received confirmation on an interesting hockey assignment, as he has just been selected by Hockey Saskatchewan to assign officials to games in the north part of the province for elite hockey divisions (Junior A, B, U-18 AAA, university) for the upcoming season.
As for what else his future may hold, Kim says he certainly isn't disappearing. In addition to the ice surface at the rink, you'll still see him around town, and he's looking forward to spending some lengthy quality time with family. As well, he'll be at the ready and excited to pop back into the classroom from time to time, should a substitute be needed for this day or that one.
For the time being, however, Sobkowicz, or 'Sobby' to many who had him as a teacher, is looking to enjoy himself and those around him as he enters a new chapter of his life.
"I've got four grandkids, and my third kid is just engaged," he said. "I'm planning a wedding sometime in the future, so I'm looking forward to spending some time with the grandkids. My wife and I have a cabin south of Waskesiu and we want to spend more time there. As far as my career goes, I'm definitely not going to sit idle, and I'll probably plan on subbing here. And it's not secret that I do a lot of reffing, and I'll still be there. I'll still be the chair of the instruction for Hockey Sask, and last year I joined Hockey Canada in a program of excellence for helping mentor officials all over the country, helping them get to that next level. We've been here in Outlook for 28 years now, and we've got some updating to do! It's been on the honey-do list to do some updating, and I've just been thinking, 'Well, I'll be retired in about a year, then I can take my time and do it better!'"
