Career move super-sized

Chris King (Photo/Kasia Broussalian)

By Yu Miao

A?s soon as Chris King (MA ’90) finished graduate school, he went back to high school. Then after being sent to the principal’s office several times, he was ordered to report to the superintendent’s office.

Soon, everyone will be reporting to – and about – him.

After starting as an English teacher at Broomfield High in 1985 and then progressing through several administrative promotions, this spring King was appointed to be the next superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District.

King, 45, BVSD’s current deputy superintendent, will assume his post as head of the 28,000-student district on July 1.

“The community was looking for someone who was very visible, accessible, easy to contact and to meet with.” King said.

Aside from his years of teaching in high schools, King said, his journalism background has aided his advancement as an administrator.

“It certainly helped me to write reports and other documents that I have to prepare. I interact with the media and get interviewed a lot. It helps me to understand what the needs are of reporters and media,” he said.

“When I was in journalism school, and still today, journalism students are expected to know how government works and to be exposed in the community. That kind of training and preparation helped me quite a bit. I feel like I use my journalism training regularly in this job. That skill transferred well into this career.”

King graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from Fort Lewis College. At BVSD’s Broomfield High School, he was assigned to run the school’s newspaper, which he admitted he knew nothing about. He came to CU in 1989 to get a master’s degree in journalism and remained a full-time teacher while doing his graduate work.

“I took classes for a few hours in the daytime and went back to my high school to teach,” King said.

He said he remembers the conditions he endured while he worked for The Campus Press in the basement of Macky Auditorium. “We had all kinds of problems with the electricity, and the facilities weren’t that good.” But even so, he said, “I have fun memories of going to the journalism school. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

King was a teaching assistant at the School for Associate Professor Jan Whitt, who taught Mass Media Writing, a course then required for all journalism majors .

“Jan Whitt was really impressive, and she helped me with my professional project,” King said, adding that he was interested in her work because of his arts and science background and their common interest in literature.

“Jan Whitt did a lot of research on female authors of the South, such as Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor. She was, and I think still is, interested in fiction and where fiction and journalism meet.”

Whitt said King was a “demanding and fair” teaching assistant and very popular among students.

Although King said he enjoyed his journalism classes, he was never convinced that he would become a professional reporter or editor.

“I was a teacher before I became interested in journalism, and I stayed a teacher. I never really pursued careers in journalism other than teaching journalism,” he said.

King said he came to love running the high school newspaper and also became yearbook adviser.

“I enjoyed photography, desktop publishing, writing, editing, teaching – all of it – and the business side. Being a newspaper adviser was one of the more fun jobs I’ve ever had.”

Susie Wargin, a sports anchor at KUSA-Channel 9 in Denver, was thrilled to hear her high school newspaper adviser will be the next BVSD superintendent.

“For some reason, he allowed me to contribute with pictures of sports,” Wargin said. “I had always been a sports nut, and this was the first time I was able to express my love of sports in a journalistic manner. I relished taking pictures of our sporting events and trying to figure out which photo best told the story – or showed the cutest and most popular guys.”

“Mr. King was always very supportive of my work, and he made me proud to contribute to the paper. I didn’t realize it then, but in looking back, that experience was truly the beginning of my marriage with sports and media,” Wargin said.

After getting his master’s degree from the SJMC, King said he continued graduate study, obtaining a Ph.D. in educational leadership from CU-Denver in 1996.

Meanwhile, from 1990 to 1992, he worked as a teacher and dean of students in the Cherry Creek Schools. In 1992, he became assistant principal of Montrose High School. Two years later, he served as an assistant principal and as an interim principal in the Jefferson County School District.

In 1997, King was hired as principal of Boulder High School. In 2001, he was appointed assistant superintendent of the BVSD Division of School Leadership. He was named BVSD’s deputy superintendent in 2005.

As the new superintendent of BVSD, King said he is committed to graduate students with strong academic skills and critical thinking abilities. “We want them to be able to think through complex problems, to ask good questions and to develop solutions. We also want them to appreciate arts, athletics and to have a well-rounded experience.”

His brother, Mike King (’89), was a News-Editorial major at the School. Mike King was named Colorado Department of Natural Resources assistant director for lands, minerals and energy policy in January 2006 and was appointed deputy director in September 2006. Before that, he was in the Policy and Regulation Section at the Colorado Division of Wildlife in various capacities for six years and was an assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1999. He has a law degree from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in public administration from CU-Denver’s Graduate School of Public Affairs.

Chris King lives with his wife, Kelley; their daughter, Roxanne, 11, and son, Connor, 13, in Superior. Back when he was in high school in Colorado, King was a wrestler at Montrose High and Fort Lewis College. Now, he said he coaches his son and travels coast to coast with him to participate in youth wrestling tournaments.