Chaparral Elementary School Principal Lori Kerns is swarmed by students after offering to play one of them in a friendly game of tetherball during recess. Ms. Kerns has been principal at the school for the past 4½ years.
(Editor’s note: the following is an on-going series about the principals in our school system.)
From the office to the playground. From the playground to the classroom. From the classroom to the lunch area and everywhere in between.
At Chaparral Elementary School, one will never find Chaparral Principal Lori Kerns in one place for long but instead will find her in perpetual motion and the principal prefers it that way.
“There’s never a dull moment,” Ms. Kerns said. “I never look at the clock wondering if time would go faster. There’s never been two days identical. Each day everything is new.
When Ms. Kerns walks throughout the campus, she is showered with greetings and hugs from her students, whether they are as young as first graders or as old as 6th graders. The outgoing and friendly nature of the Chaparral principal is something that permeates the school from the staff to the students.
An opportunity to interact with Ms. Kerns results in smiles and laughs from the Chaparral students. The principal takes joy in not only interacting with her students but also knowing who they are.
“My goal is to know every child [here at Chaparral] and to know something about them,” Ms. Kerns explained. “It’s all about relationships. I get such a joy out of seeing the kid’s joyful faces and seeing kids that are excited about coming to school.”
Her students are not the only group that Ms. Kerns leaves a lasting impression on. Whether it’s the school faculty and staff, other Claremont Unified School District principals, or district representatives, they all offer similar words of admiration about the Chaparral principal.
“Lori is awesome,” said Frank D’Emilio, principal of Sumner Elementary School. “She is a great principal and I will many times call on her for advice and just to bounce ideas around.
Oakmont Elementary School Principal Kevin Ward agrees.
“She brings a high level of energy and intensive focus,” he said. “When you do something with Lori, you know you’re going to do it 110 percent. She’s a lot of fun to be around.”
With former Claremont High School Principal Carrie Allen moving into the newly created CUSD role as director of secondary education, Ms. Kerns is currently the only female principal in the district. Yet she feels just as connected to her colleagues as any male principals would and is appreciative of how she has been embraced by the others.
“They are the most marvelous gentlemen you would ever meet,” she said. “We are a team and we get along personally and professionally. Each of our schools are different but we are able to celebrate our differences in a very professional way. I can’t think of a nicer and better place to be.”
Ms. Kerns cites her grandmother as having a significant influence on her decision to go into education. Her grandmother began her teaching career at 50 years old and serves as a source of inspiration for the Chaparral principal.
“She set the bar high and she was an incredible role model,” Ms. Kerns said.
Though her original interest in education was in physical education, Ms. Kerns found herself in the regular classroom as a teacher for the first several years of her current 23-year educational career in Chino Unified School District. The Chino High School graduate holds an undergraduate degree in physical education from Cal Poly Pomona and earned her M.A. in Education from Cal State San Bernardino.
After serving as an assistant principal in Alta Loma for 5 years, Ms. Kerns then became a principal at Grace Miller Elementary School in Bonita Unified School District, before coming to CUSD. At CUSD, Ms. Kerns served as principal at Oakmont Elementary School for 2 years before being assigned by the district to Chaparral, where she has been the last 4 ½ years.
As a principal, Ms. Kerns not only desires to see her students grow academically but also socially as well. CUSD’s main goal of providing a quality education for the whole child is an idea that she embraces and continues to seek new ways to implement on the Chaparral campus.
“She’s a good lady,” said Kevin Grier, principal of El Roble Intermediate School. “She’s a high-energy principal that is passionate about student achievement and expects the best from her staff and herself. Yet she’s all about the kids and I’m always amazed at how well she knows her kids.”
The relationships with her staff and parents are something that Ms. Kerns also takes to heart, pointing out that it takes a “village” of support in order for the endeavors of the school to be successful.
“I can’t say enough about the excellence of our teachers and the incredible support of the parents,” she said. “Each of us represents a spoke on a wheel and when all the spokes are on the wheel, everything runs smoother.”
One of the focuses for the future at Chaparral is enhancement and more implementation of technology in the classroom. This school year, Chaparral’s classrooms now contain ceiling-mounted projectors to be used in conjunction with the classroom curriculum.
Ms. Kerns would also like to see more after-school enrichment at Chaparral and hopes to also eventually provide regular foreign language opportunities for the students. Currently, the school is working with Scripps College on a foreign-language project that is introducing the elementary students to languages such as Japanese, French, Chinese and Spanish.
Overall, Ms. Kerns looks forward to the future of the entire district, under the leadership of current CUSD Superintendent David Cash. Regarding the future, she sees Chaparral as a place she can happily remain until retirement and enjoys being a part of CUSD.
“Hopefully I can retire here,” Ms. Kerns said. “I’m not looking to move up to the district office because I enjoy being able to be in the classrooms and with the kids. I never want to be removed from why I do what I do. This is a place where I get to be hugged and play. It’s the best job in the world.”
Article by By Landus Rigsby
Originally Claremont Courier – 10/20/07
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