Chris Hurst new Othello school superintendent

OTHELLO — Chris Hurst said it’s about giving back.

“What do we give back? We’re created to give back,” he said. Hurst is the new superintendent for the Othello School District. He replaces George Juarez, who retired at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

Hurst is an 18-year veteran of education, all in San Diego, Calif. Before becoming a teacher and administrator, “I was a Marine Corps drill instructor,” he said.

But education was always in the plan. “I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher,” he said. It was all about his ambition to give back, which is rooted in his Christian faith, he said.

He became a math teacher in San Diego, then an administrator. He moved to a different school district to become a principal at Oceanside High School.

The move, and Oceanside, are an example of some of the things he’s learned in education, he said. His first district was in an affluent section of the San Diego area. Oceanside was not. It was majority-minority, and most of its students came from families below the poverty line. District officials decided to make some major innovations to give its students a better chance to succeed.

Hurst administered a school-inside-the-school that helped kids get ready for careers in medicine. There were four schools inside Oceanside, focused on careers that fit into the local economy. “We were able to change everything in four years,” he said. But it took partnerships and collaboration between teachers and administrators, students, parents, higher education, business and community to make that happen, he said.

Othello too faces challenges. “But all of that can change,” Hurst said.

His goal, he said, is “success for every single student,” whether that’s college, technical training or a job. But giving every kid the best chance, he said, involves parents and community as well as the school district – in fact the school district can’t do it alone. “How do we work together to solve this complex issue?”

He worked with businesses on classes that offered industry certification, and with colleges to ensure kids could gain admission. “It’s really a partnership.” The school emphasized STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes, and used classes like computer programming and robotics to teach skills that can be used in any field – critical thinking, creativity, communication, among others.

Hurst said another area of focus will be early childhood education. He wants to catch kids who aren’t ready for kindergarten, and give children ages 2-4 extra help in getting ready. Literacy and reading is the primary focus of that program, he said.

Hurst’s dad was in the Army, and Hurst was ready to follow in his footsteps, he said. But his brother joined the Marine Corps and “I saw the difference in my brother.” That led him to join the Marines.

He’s lived most of his life in California, but Hurst and his family used to visit his parents at their home in Yakima. “We just fell in love with the area,” he said. After the big-city ambiance of San Diego, “it’s really refreshing to be part of a community with such strong family values.”

Othello has welcomed Hurst and his wife Crystal, he said. Othello residents have invited them to dinner, introduced themselves at the store. “People are just genuinely nice here,” he said. “They’ve treated us like they’ve known us for years.”

Crystal Hurst is a special education teacher, visually impaired since an illness at age 9. “So she has a real passion for working with children who are visually impaired.” The couple has two children. Their daughter Taffiney Simmons is a teacher in Oceanside, and their son Kenneth Hurst, Jr., is a systems analyst and computer engineer.