BIG PINEY – In response to the age old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Dr. Charles Jenks replied, “I want to be a history teacher and coach.”
Jenks carried this ambition through middle school and high school.
Before entering college at Idaho State University, he had second thoughts. Talking to teachers, Jenks realized, “There’s not a whole lot of money to be made in education.”
Jenks started his undergraduate career majoring in business management. Then he landed a job tutoring first-, second- and third-graders in a national reading program.
“I needed some extra money – didn’t really think anything of it,” he said. “I went into this elementary school in Pocatello and started working with kids. The work resonated with me and I realized I loved working with those kids.”
Jenks dropped business management to pursue a teaching degree.
“I always wanted to do education, so I decided to do it,” he said. “I don’t care if I don’t make a lot of money. Education is what motivates me. It’s what I’m passionate about.”
Jenks graduated Idaho State University with a degree in secondary education. He accepted an offer to teach social studies and special education at Wind River High School in Pavillion, Wyo. Jenks also coached high school girls’ and boys’ basketball.
Three years into his teaching career, Fremont County School District No. 6 offered Jenks a job as special education director at Wind River High School. Jenks was initially hesitant to go into administration at that point, but took the plunge.
Jenks learned he enjoyed taking on the challenges involved in leadership. After five years coordinating special education, Jenks was promoted to principal of Wind River Middle School. The position merged with the high school two years later and Jenks found himself at the helm of grades 6-12.
During his tenure in Fremont County, Jenks returned to school to receive a Master’s of Education in special education and a doctorate in education administration from the University of Wyoming.
Jenks completed both degrees while working full-time as an administrator, coaching and raising a family with his wife.
When the superintendent position opened in Sublette County School District No. 9, Jenks felt ready to tackle a new challenge.
Finding inspiration
Education is a demanding career, and the compensation does not always reflect the hard work administrators, teachers and staff put into their jobs. Throughout his career, key people motivated Jenks to stick with it and reminded him about the rewards.
Before graduating Idaho State University, Jenks student-taught in Boise, Idaho, with a veteran teacher named Mary Forsyth.
“She was phenomenal,” he said. “She hit home the positive impact a teacher can have on students. She worked at the lowest-income school in Boise. But every time class started, she acted as if she was on a Broadway stage. She took teaching so seriously. She knew the kids by heart and invested in who they were.”
Tutoring struggling readers as an undergraduate played a role in Jenks’s decision to work in special education. Watching a relative with autism face difficult experiences in local schools that were “not always positive” also motivated Jenks to enter the field.
“I always had a special place in my heart for those that have some type of intellectual or physical disability and empowering them to succeed and be as independent as possible and giving them the right tools to advocate for themselves. I like advocating for those who are marginalized.”
In 2010, Jenks was promoted to special education director at Wind River High School. The outgoing coordinator took Jenks under her wing.
“I learned from her that it’s all about kids,” he said. “That was her mantra: At the end of the day, it’s all about kids and we can’t forget that. She just hammered that over and over again. The reason why we exist is for students.”
Finding a leadership balance
Jenks’s leadership philosophy does not fit the old stereotype of a stuffy, top-level bureaucrat dictating orders from a perch on high.
“I am never going to be the type of leader that assumes or thinks that I have all the answers – not even close,” Jenks said. “I get very excited when I can bring a group of people together, and collaboratively, we can solve a problem.”
Jenks recognized times when superintendents need to take the reins and represent the district, make emergency decisions and be the desk where the buck stops.
The key is balancing a degree of control with the necessity to listen and learn from staff, teachers and administrators, Jenks said.
“When people get to be a part of the process there’s buy-in, or better yet, they take ownership,” he added. “When people take ownership of what is going on within a system, man, the sky is the limit. You can solve all sorts of problems.”
Jenks also believes in encouraging creativity.
“One of my mantras is I try to get to ‘yes’ as much as possible when people come to me with a new idea or thought. I’m not always going to say yes, but I try to as much as I possibly can. When you say yes to an idea that a teacher or someone brings to you, boy do they get excited because it’s their idea and they get to see it come to fruition.”
The transition from principal to superintendent involves a steep learning curve, Jenks recognized. His education involves expanding knowledge to all the departments that keep a district running, from transportation to food service.
Jenks’s plan for the first year is to “watch and observe and get to know the district and then start identifying what I can do to help improve it or add to it.”
“I honestly believe that within this district, we have the talent, the ability, the expertise to solve every problem that comes to us,” he said. “But you have to tap into the people that have the answers.”
A perfect fit
Jenks is comfortable in small, rural schools. His high school class in Idaho graduated 32 students. Jenks spent his career at Wind River, with a graduating class averaging 30 students.
Jenks leapt at the chance to take on a new challenge when the superintendent position opened in School District No. 9.
“The community is a place that I have always admired from the outside,” he said. “I’ve come here quite a bit over the years through coaching. I always felt it was a nice, tight-knit community where we always felt welcome. People are gracious, kind and friendly.”
Jenks was also impressed by community support.
“It’s nice when the school is the heart of the community, and you can feel that here,” he added.
Small school districts allow teachers and administrators the chance to get to know each student, Jenks said, along with opportunities to provide individualized education engaging each student’s passions.
Jenks looks forward to starting the school year and meeting teachers, staff and students. He is also excited for his children to study in schools filled with “fantastic” people. World-class fly fishing, hiking, camping and hunting opportunities were an added bonus, Jenks said.
“I’m grateful to the school board and the trust they’ve put into hiring me and all the local people that I get to work with here,” Jenks told the Examiner.
Even if that means changing allegiance from the Cougars to the Punchers.
“I will always appreciate my time at Wind River,” Jenks said. “It’s where I grew up as an educator. They gave me a chance to be an administrator. But I’m all in right now as a Big Piney Puncher.”
And a Rustler.
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