New 7-12 principal glad to be on job

    It took him awhile to get here, but Christopher Barr is happy he made the 3,309 mile trip to Imperial.
    Chase County Schools’ new 7-12 principal moved here from Anchorage, Alaska, where he served the past year as the Anchorage School District Director of Charter Schools.
    He sat down to talk Tuesday after just over two weeks on the job. His first contracted day was Aug. 1.
    After the five-day road trip, Barr said it was great to get here July 29. Since then, he’s met a lot of people and staff.
    “The community has been so welcoming,” he said.
    People have gone out of their way to say hello, he added.
    Monday this week marked his first full meeting with all of the grade 7-12 staff, but he didn’t wait until then to meet many of them.
    “I had met with a lot of staff already, and they are excited for the school year,” he said.
    He’d also met a number of students already by early this week.
    Building positive relationships with students is what Barr sees as the most important role as principal.
    “It’s important when kids know someone here cares about them and wants them to succeed,” he said.
    It’s the same with the staff, he said.
    He’s thankful to be part of the CCS team and community.
    “It was a good choice for me,” he said, adding he’s glad the board selected him for the position.
    While he’ll be concentrating on his role as an administrator, Barr said he supports activities and the public will see him at CCS extra-curricular events.
    Radio was one of the extra-curriculars he was involved in from 2014-16 while serving as K-12 principal in Akiachak, Alaska, a small fly-in village of 1,000 people.
    “I love radio,” he said. “It’s one of my passions.”
    In Akiachak, they established a radio station at his school, KHKY-Husky Radio, where he had a year-round call-in show on Fridays and Saturdays called “The Principal’s Office.”
    He taught broadcasting classes at the school, too, drawing students into a potential profession to which they could be exposed. Some of the students did broadcasting, in which writing and storytelling could be incorporated to make it an educational experience.

    He continued his radio work when moving to Anchorage in 2016 on KRUA on the University of Alaska campus. He continued his radio work there until May this year.
    He and his wife Amanda moved to Anchorage in 2016 where he was principal of the Rilke Schule German Immersion School of Arts & Sciences until 2021.
    After his original interview here and since arriving late July, Barr had a lot to say about the facilities at CCS.
    “This is a beautiful school. The facilities here are magnificent,” he said.
    After being in education 20 years, Barr said he’s not sure he’s seen a cleaner, better organized school, not to mention its equipment for students.
    “It blows me away,” he said. “There is a lot of opportunity for kids here.”
    His wife Amanda plans to remain in Anchorage this school year, where she is the Math Curriculum Coordinator for the entire Anchorage School District.
    He said this is the final year of implementation of its new math curriculum there. She is coordinating all training of teachers, administrators and district personnel for the new curriculum, he said.
    Looking back again on his 57-hour trip in the car to get here, Barr admitted it was a long drive.
    “But there’s a lot to be said about watching a sunrise in Colorado.
    “And the same for those Nebraska fields,” he said.