Nothing makes Excelsior Springs’ High School Principal, Christen Everett (Cluckey) more frustrated than when she hears students say disparagingly, “Oh, we’re just from Excelsior!” Everett wants students to be proud of Excelsior Springs, “I want them to wear it like a badge of honor, yes you ARE from Excelsior Springs, you ARE a tiger, and look at all the amazing things you’re contributing, not in spite of being from Excelsior Springs, but because you ARE from Excelsior Springs!” Although she’s been at Excelsior Springs High School since 2002, she’s just In her third year as Principal and hasn’t had a ‘normal year’ since she began. “I had a good seven months before things went crazy,” she chuckled. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, virtual learning, masks, and social distancing she says the students and teachers have shown an incredible amount of resiliency. “It’s still not a typical year, but we really do have an amazing group of teachers who have done everything they can to make this a positive experience for students,” said Everett.
Everett who graduated from Lawson High School in 1999 pursued a degree in Journalism and Communications at the University of Central Missouri (UCM). After graduating she married her high school sweetheart, Victor Everett, and began a career at KCTV5 as an assistant in the advertising department. Within six months, at the age of just 22, she was promoted to be an advertising account executive. Even though she’d just begun and was advancing quickly, she was already feeling restless. “I think I could have had a very successful career there, but I just didn’t go home excited about it,” she said. She and Victor had already been discussing growing their family and how they might have to adjust their lifestyle. Everett knew she wanted a career that would allow her more flexibility to raise children, and working in media production meant she would be traveling and working a lot of evenings and odd hours.
And then fate called… well, actually Everett’s old yearbook and newspaper teacher, Suzanne Cotton, called. She told Everett that Excelsior Springs was looking for a journalism teacher. “I didn’t have a teaching background but I thought ‘That sounds really fun, I’m going to apply and see what happens,” Everett recalled. She interviewed for the job and was hired the same day. “They told me, ‘you’re going to need to get a teaching degree,’ so I went back and got my Master’s in Education through UCM while I began teaching,” said Everett. She immediately fell in love with the school environment and being with her students in the classroom. Teaching journalism and yearbook classes she dealt with many of the high-achieving students, but her ELT (homeroom) class had several at-risk students. “I found my bread and butter, I love, love, love working with students who maybe don’t see school as all super fun,” she said. Connecting with students who were facing challenges such as not having a good support system at home, or who were disenfranchised with school set off a spark within Everett. She began work on her specialist’s degree, became an intervention specialist at ESHS, and quickly pushed forward earning her doctoral degree.
Everett says she feels called to support students outside of the normal boundaries of school. “If we can get those 8 to 10 students who might normally drop out of high school each year to finish high school, we can quickly change the trajectory of our community,” she said. Everett says not all students have a storybook home life, and students come to school “with a million different situations” each day and she wants to be able to meet them where they’re at on their journey. She fondly reflected on the success of a student who graduated this past December. “I just kept reaching out to her telling her, ‘you can come back… I will support you.’ I could have just let her go, but I wanted her to know that even if she wasn’t in school, there were still people here who wanted something good for her,” said Everett.
In general, Everett says she’s just “having a lot of fun right now,” students are back in the classrooms, things are starting to find a balance, and her sons Eliott (16) and Gabe (14) will both be in high school next year. Her one complaint is that she doesn’t think Excelsiorites gives themselves enough credit for how kind they are. “I think sometimes people think you have to have a lot of money or stature to be able to do something nice for people, but what I see here is that people support each other in so many tiny ways. I knew that being a teacher here, but I really felt it when I moved my family here several years ago.” Everett wants people in Excelsior Springs to take a moment to reflect and appreciate all of the good things we have here. She concluded, “I hope everyone sees all the amazing things and people that are around this community. In this age of social media, it’s easy to dwell on negative things, but this town is full of empathetic caring people who step up for each other all the time.”
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