Justin Boliver named interim MHS principal for 2024-2025 school year
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Since he started in the education field over two decades ago, Class of 1991 Marshalltown High School graduate Justin Boliver dreamed of someday becoming the high school principal at his alma mater.
Other than a three-year sojourn to Roland-Story, Boliver has worked in the MCSD for his entire career, and on July 1, he'll officially assume the role of interim principal at MHS for the 2024-2025 school year and replace Jacque Wyant, who is moving into a new role as the district's human resources director. He's excited to take on the challenge and hopes that if things go well, the interim tag will be removed from his title going forward.
Superintendent Theron Schutte, who, like Boliver, is an MHS alum himself, feels Boliver is a great fit for the position.
"We are fortunate to have Marshalltown High School (MHS) alum Mr. Justin Boliver willing and able to serve as interim principal for the 2024-2025 school year. Justin has served successfully as a teacher, coach and administrator in our district for many years and recently gained head high school principal experience with the Roland Story CSD," Schutte said. "His knowledge and experiences at MHS will prove beneficial as we onboard new high school associate principals and support the students, staff and parents at MHS."
During a recent interview, Boliver admitted that he took a bit of a roundabout path to education: after finishing college, he spent time working at the Lennox factory in town and put out an application for a jailer position with the Marshall County Sheriff's Office. It was then that Fred Wills, then the principal at Anson, urged Boliver to consider becoming a paraeducator in a behavioral support classroom.
By 1999, he had completed the necessary coursework to become a certified teacher and began a 17-year stint in special education that took him to several MCSD buildings, including the high school where he will now serve as principal. From 2014 to 2016, he became the dean of students and then moved into an associate principal role at the high school from 2016 to 2020.
"I wanted to one day be Marshalltown High School principal. How cool to graduate from here (and do that)?" he asked. "I've been in Marshalltown since second grade, so what a cool end goal to lead the high school you went to."
Before he could achieve that goal, however, Boliver felt he needed to gain experience as a high school principal at a smaller district, so he headed west about 35 miles to Roland-Story. Even when he was working there, Justin and his wife Nicole, a fellow educator who was commuting back to Marshalltown for her job with the MCSD, decided after one year of winter driving that they would keep a residence here as well, where she could stay a couple days a week and he could come back if he didn't have activities on a given night.
For the 2023-2024 school year, he returned to his old position as an associate principal at MHS, and when Wyant was selected to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Nora Ryan, Boliver finally had the chance to make his dream come true.
"It's taken a lot of work. It wasn't just given. I've had to work pretty hard for that. I've had to leave Marshalltown, which was tough. I love Marshalltown. I love the people, love the community, so when I left, that was tough. That was a little bittersweet," he said. "But I came back, and I was ecstatic to be back in Marshalltown. It just always has felt like home."
And even though he's technically walking into a new position this year, having a predecessor who's still with the district is an invaluable resource for Boliver.
"Jacque's just been an awesome mentor the whole time I've been here. She's kind of led me, you know, I give her a lot of credit," he said. "She's one of the people who should get a lot of credit for helping me get into a position at Roland-Story to lead a building on my own, and then of course, (she's) just always there to answer questions and help me with things or help me with things like 'Hey, what do you do here?' Just a great mentor."
As he joked, even if he can't immediately get a hold of Wyant via phone call or text, he can just drive over to the central office to ask her any questions he might have. With the sports complex and storm shelter improvements completed and the Career and Technical Education (CTE) wing still under construction, Boliver feels that it's an exciting time to lead MHS.
"This is a great time to step in as principal. One of the things, as you look around, is all the construction. That's something I love about Marshalltown. We want to keep growing. We want to keep adding new facilities. We take a lot of pride in our curriculum here, and you can see it," he said. "You see it now at the athletic complex, and we have teachers still working through the summer looking at different math adoption, reading adoption. Our classrooms, I walk through those, and they're just phenomenal spaces."
In terms of the biggest challenge he sees heading into the school year, Boliver hopes to address a problem that has compounded across the country since the COVID-19 pandemic: chronic absenteeism.
"After 2020, the attendance has plummeted in schools all across the nation and the world, and we're no different, so that is huge," he said. "Our attendance is not great, so I'm excited to work with parents, our district, you know, (and) just other leaders to boost that attendance and just really ingrain in our families and our students why it's so important that you're at school every day, that you have a good attendance rate at school."
Nonetheless, for a lifelong Bobcat who's taking on his dream job, the opportunity couldn't possibly be more exhilarating.
"I am most excited about having 1,500, almost 1,600 students, back in these hallways -- the hustle and bustle of the students and the laughter and seeing the students hug each other, high five their teachers. There's not a better feeling," Boliver said. "We've had some new staff come in. We have some great people coming in. We have a whole new administrative team. Those are gonna be great additions to Marshalltown High School... All have experience, and they're all great people. They've been in this system. They know it. They know our kids, and they know our families. So it's gonna be great."
And most of all, he looks forward to supporting teachers, who Boliver credited with playing the most important role in providing kids with a quality education. Boliver can be reached at jboliver@marshalltown.k12.ia.us.