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When Borgen arrived at Fidalgo back in 1985, he was a relative newcomer to elementary education. Although he had spent a year as an assistant principal at a junior high school in Spanaway, Washington, he had devoted most of his career to teaching English and coaching basketball at Anacortes High School. Betty Adams, longtime school secretary at Fidalgo, got the scoop on the new boss before he even arrived. "I was told that he was young and didn't know much about elementary schools. But I also heard that he was a nice person, a quality person, and he could learn." And learn he did. "I knew this was a good school before I arrived," Borgen recalls. "It has a strong staff of teachers who have been together for quite a while. So I tried to work that to my advantage. I came in and said: I've got some things to learn. I hope you can help me. I'd like to live in your classrooms for a while and learn from you about elementary education." Some of the veterans raised an eyebrow at first. "Here was this new kid on the block, barely 30, with all this youthful energy," recalls Sue Harrington, who retired last year after 28 years of teaching, all of it at Fidalgo. "But he turned out to be a breath of fresh air. I had been teaching for more than a decade by then. I was getting a little tired. He brought in new energy and ideas that probably helped me stay in teaching." Nancy Bush, who spent 20 years at Fidalgo before retiring, still remembers how the new principal handed out balloons to staff members. "You could turn in your balloon for two hours of free time to schedule however you wanted — conferences or lesson planning or whatever — and he would cover our classrooms," she says. Although impressed by his eagerness, she waited and watched for a year before cashing in her balloon. Meanwhile, teachers started noticing that kids were looking for any excuse to visit the new principal's office. Far from a punishment, a trip to see Principal Borgen was a chance to show off your best work and get a Gummy Bear as reward. From the start, Borgen has been sure to build on strengths rather than penalize shortcomings — whether he's working with students or staff. Borgen also took time, as soon as he arrived at Fidalgo, to talk with each teacher individually. "I wanted to find out what they valued, and what they wished they could take care of better." Although he was proceeding by instinct — just getting acquainted — Borgen has since learned that what he was doing has a name and a place in academic circles. "It's a cultural audit, to use the research phrase, but I didn't know that at the time." The new principal quickly detected that his teachers shared "a tremendous sense of ownership, which I think is still the hallmark of this school. There were some things we needed to work on, some systems that could work better. But those were minor." Borgen also convinced his faculty to conduct a thorough self-study, using criteria defined by the school — effectiveness movement. Not only did the study give the school a baseline for future assessments, but it also helped break down a feeling of isolation. "It expanded our awareness of what other schools were doing, and gave us a chance to compare and contrast ourselves against what the research says we should be doing in effective schools," says Borgen. The survey, conducted by the local education service district, also yielded some candid critiques of the new boss. "That helped my development as a principal," he says. Quickly earning a reputation as a lover of research, Borgen rallied his staff to take yet another collaborative step. Together, they wrote the mission statement that continues to drive the institution. "That has given us a vision of where we want to be. It's not just something for the wall," he says, although it still hangs in the school entryway.
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The New Principal Special Report:
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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