Partnership Principal Christie Gestvang 

Gilchrist (OR) High School Principal Christie Gestvang knows that she is working too many hours, but that knowledge doesn’t seem to slow her down at her school of 312 students.

“The most important thing for a school leader is to connect with the kids,” she contends. “I try to be as visible as possible in the classrooms and attend as many school events as I can. I end up working 60 to 70 hours a week, but it’s important to be there to support the students and staff.”

Gilchrist High School serves a small logging and forest service community with a pre-school through 12th grade program. Students are transported up to 30 miles each way to school, and technology has become a key delivery system for instruction. Sixty-eight percent of the students are from families below the poverty line.

Our school is special,” says Gestvang, who has been principal at Gilchrist for five years. “But every principal should feel that way. We have a 24/7 job.”

And Christie isn’t just talking. She’s committed to kids.

“I want all students to get the best possible education they can from the best staff they can. Our young people have to become life-long learners. Their lives will change so much more than the lives of people in my generation.”

Under that philosophy, Gilchrist is a comprehensive high school offering a college prep program and significant vocational courses including culinary arts, technology, business, welding and wood-working. The college prep students receive a number of offerings through the Internet.

Partnerships are run through Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and Central Oregon Community College where students as young as eighth grade can earn college credit onsite at Gilchrist High.

Developing community partnerships is also essential in the small Gilchrist community.

“We strongly believe in the proverb that it takes a whole village to raise a child,” Gestvang says. “Some of our kids are couch-surfers. The school has become a surrogate family for our students and we are trying to build bridges with aunts, uncles, and grandparents to support children.”

The demands of a small community have taught Christie the importance of flexibility as a school leader.

“We must be flexible. As kids’ needs change, schools must change.”

Flexibility also means different tasks for a principal in a small community. Working in a former company town, Gestvang finds that one of her responsibilities is supervising a mobile home park and apartments that were created to provide affordable housing for the school staff. She is likely one of the few members of The Principals’ Partnership that is both a principal and property manager.

But she had a diverse background in education before becoming Gilchrist principal six years ago. Previously, she worked as a physical education/health/social studies teacher, a coach, a middle school vice principal, an athletic director, a high school curriculum vice principal, and an elementary school principal.

“I’ve been happy in my years at Gilchrist. We still have projects left to be done, but we’ve had tremendously growth in the past three years. Soon, we’ll have a school district wide literacy plan in place.”

Gestvang can be contacted at [email protected], and additional information on the school district can be founded at kcsd.k12.or.us. A school web site is currently being developed.