After twenty-eight years of working in the public school system, Charbonneau Gourde has arrived at Prairie as the new vice principal. He aims to learn the ropes of the PHS community this year as he fills in where Mrs. Thompson left off.
Vice Principal Gourde began his career teaching 7th-grade language and social studies in Selah Washington, then after taking a year off to obtain his master’s, he moved down to southwest Washington to teach at Mt. View High School. With Union HS opening in 2007, he left Mt. View to become the dean of students, before moving yet again to become Principal at Covington Middle School. Mr. Gourde then ended up in the Battleground School district becoming principal at Battleground High School for six years.
So why now come to Prairie, and take a step down to vice principal? Well, he didn’t do it without good reason. “I like being a principal, a lot, but it requires a lot of time away from home,” Gourde said “I was missing too much of my kids growing up.” With the realization coming to him in early last year he knew he needed to find a way to spend more time with his twin daughter, both sophmores. So he put in the request to the superintendent to “downshift” and possibly move back to a middle school principal or a high school vice principal.
With almost perfect timing for Gourde, Erin Thompson the previous assistant principal decided to move to Pleasant Valley Middle and fill their Assistant Principal position. With the new opening available he jumped on the opportunity and is excited to see how the year teats him and how the Prairie community works.
Now that the school year is in full swing Vice Principal Gourde focused on getting incorporated with the Prairie way, “My job this year is to just listen and learn,” Gourde says “I want people to get to know me, and I want to really get to know people, because you cannot do this job unless you really care about the people you work with.”
Make sure to not be shy if you see him around, go and introduce yourself, and welcome Vice Principal Gourde into the Falcon Family.
