Prongua Begins Duties As Junior High Principal

By Bill Vander Weele

Amanda Prongua is excited to begin her first year as the principal for Wolf Point Junior High School.

“My door is always open, I’m always willing to listen,” Prongua said. “I want the kids to have the best education possible.”

She grew up in Hot Springs on a ranch that her grandfather homesteaded. The family still owns the ranch.

After graduating high school from Hot Springs in 1999, she attended Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho where she planned to major in business. Prongua’s goals, however, changed when she performed an internship at Walt Disney World and realized how much she enjoys working with children. She transferred to Montana State University in Billings and graduated with a degree in education.

She then taught sixth-grade science for a couple of years in Idaho. She decided she wanted to become an administrator that supports teachers. She earned her administrators’ degree from Boise State in 2014, Her experience as an administrator includes two years in Lodge Grass and two years in Hysham.

While in Hysham, she got to know Wolf Point’s current superintendent of schools Dr. David Perkins, who was serving as superintendent in Custer at the time. The two schools co-op in sports, so Prongua kept books for the junior high basketball team while Perkins coached and drove the bus.

“I got to know him,” Prongua said. “We had a great time.”

Because of her appreciation of Perkins as a superintendent, Prongua was interested in the principal job. Her background includes teaching for one year in Poplar so she knows the area.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading “anything and everything.” She likes to find good books and pass them around.

She also describes herself as a big of a “sports nut.” She has run clocks for football games and done books for both basketball and volleyball.

“I like following the kids and know what they’re up to,” Prongua said. “It’s really easy and the kids appreciate it.”