My favorite recipes - Meet Jake Dingman, Oakesdale

Jana Mathia | Nov 04, 20100

In Oakesdale he is known as the Super Prince. Not because Jake Dingman has special powers or claim to a crown, but because he is the superintendent-principal of the Oakesdale School District.

“To me, Super Prince is a lot of fun,” he said.

Jake came to Oakesdale to be the Super Prince three years ago. Before that he was living in Denver, Colo., where he had worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent.

“I always wanted to be a teacher. More than that, I always wanted to be a principal,” he said.

Jake’s mother was an aide at his elementary school. He grew up surrounded by teachers.

“I had great teachers,” he said.

In high school he had a class where he helped an elementary class and got to teach on occasion. He began teaching as a career in 2002 at the Clear Creek School District. At the end of his first year the principal pulled him aside and told him to get the education he needed to be principal. Two years later he was principal and a year and a half after that he took over as superintendent when the former superintendent suddenly became sick.

“For a very short while I just got to be superintendent,” he recalled.

Jake wanted to move to Washington and began job hunting. He had lived in western Washington for a time and liked the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane areas.

“I knew I wanted to stay small, in a small district,” he said.

Jake first saw Oakesdale when he was one of three finalists selected to come for an interview, an event which drew a lot of the community residents.

He liked the area and was hired. While Clear Creek was considered small with 1,000 students and 200 employees, Oakesdale is considerably smaller with 120 students and 35 employees. He noted that what rates as big discipline issues in Oakesdale wouldn’t have even been blinked at in his former school.

Although there is a big difference in size, school is still school, he added, and kids get rewards or deal with consequences for their actions.

The staff has become a family which was one of the goals given to Jake when he was hired. Having that family was nice when Jake, a single dad, moved to Oakesdale with his three children.

“I have about 20 moms,” he commented.

Jake has found more family than he bargained for in Oakesdale. When he moved to a town of 400, he never thought he would meet someone special. Then he met Sonia Brown, a single mother with two children. They were married Sept. 25, a few months after Jake finished his doctorate.

Kids are Jake’s main hobby. A superintendent’s job is all about looking at numbers, while a principal gets to be with the students. He has the best of both worlds. The kid contact makes his job a lot of fun, whether it is students coming in to read to him for class or stopping in his office to chat.

Jake’s schedule is saturated with kids activities, whether t-ball for his own or fall sports for school. He attends all the home events and some away ones as well. Last spring he sang ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ with the school band at the concert.

“I can’t sing; let’s just clarify that,” he said.

The community is also very involved with the school and Jake finds he is never short of volunteers.

“This is a great community,” he said.

On Wednesdays he has lunch with senior citizens who come to the school to eat as part of a program through Council on Aging. Sometimes the kids will come and entertain the seniors while they eat.

“It’s busy all the time,” Jake said. Luckily, the school is very family-oriented, so he can take the kids and Sonia to an event and it becomes a family night.

His kids like movies, so they try and make a movie day once in a while. They also like to swim, go on road-trips and ride tractors at the grandparents’ place.

He and Sonia also like to go on trips he calls “sanity breaks.”

Jake has always liked to cook and experiment with food.

“I love to cook pretty much anything,” he said.

Recipes:

Chicken Enchiladas

12 flour tortillas

1 jar salsa (however hot you like it)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

At least 3 cups shredded cheese

At least 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces or shredded

1 tub sour cream

1 crock pot

Mix the salsa, chicken soup and sour cream together in a large bowl. Add the chicken and cheese. Put a large scoop of the chicken mixture into a tortilla and wrap like a burrito. Put in the crock pot.

You will have multiple layers in the crock pot. Between each layer put a scoop of the chicken mix between the tortillas. After all the tortillas are full, put the leftover chicken mixture over the top of the enchiladas and shred extra cheese to you liking over the top layer.

Turn crock pot on low for 4 hours and serve.

Green Chili

8 oz. green chilies, chopped

4 oz. jalapeños, chopped

1 lg. onion, cut to the size you like

1 lg. can tomatoes—save the juice

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lb. meat of your liking, chicken and pork are the best

8 cups water

2-4 chicken bullion cubes

1 lg. crock pot

Cook the meat thoroughly and cut into bite size pieces or shred.

Mix all ingredients in the crock pot; add meat after it is cooked. Cook in crook pot on low for six hours; stirring occasionally.

After 6 hours, the chili is ready to serve. If it is too spicy, mix in the tomato juice until you have the desired “spiceness.”

If the chili is not thick enough for your liking, use Wondra flour. Sprinkle it in a little at a time to get the desired thickness of your chili. The chili is great served by itself with tortillas, to smother burritos, enchiladas…whatever.