SCSD#3 New Principal/Superintendent Takes Position July 1

Dr, Boyd Brown and Chase Christensen

Chase Christensen will take over as the new superintendent and principal of Sheridan County School District #3 on July 1. He replaces Dr. Boyd Brown who has been interim superintendent for the past few months.

Christensen was born and raised in Montana, and attended schools in Cody, Wyoming. His father was a game warden in Montana and worked in the Rosebud and Broadus area.

He graduated from the University of Wyoming and took a job in Wheatland, where he coached volleyball and was the FFA advisor. He then went to Torrington, where he was the high school principal.

He said he had chosen Sheridan County as a place to move to, and he liked the Clearmont area.

He added that he enjoys backpacking in the Bighorns. He said he grew up with a love-hate relationship toward the Bighorn Mountains. He added that when he was in high school he’d pack up to go on a backpacking trip and his mother would worry about his backpacking in the Absarokas, up the Thorofare or in the Bear Tooth Mountains. His mother would always tell him, “Nope, go to Bighorns, cause there’s no grizzly bears in the Bighorns.”

“So in high school, I got to the point where I resented that. But I got to know the Bighorns well.”

He also said that the school and community appealed to him.

He added that the Torrington School district has over 1600 kids, and it encompassed three different communities. Due to that, it wasn’t as close-knit as the Clearmont community. As principal at Torrington High School he had around 300 kids.

In doing the job in Clearmont as both superintendent and principal, he said he would have to wear ‘many hats’ but he felt the experience he had in Torrington would be a help. Christensen said that being both superintendent and principal would he would learn to do the work of a superintendent but at the same time he would still be involved with the community and students.

Although he takes over the reins on the first of July, currently Christensen said he is learning to know the district and reaching out to be a part of the community at this point.

He felt the successes of the school – Arvada-Clearmont High School had a 100% graduation rate in 2020-21 – speak toward continuing what is working now and that it is a matter of his developing an understanding of the school and the community.

He said there he wants to make sure that students have the opportunities that are available to students in larger schools and finding ways to provide those opportunities while not losing their identity here in Clearmont.