“It was an emotional thing for me,” Pagosa Springs Middle School’s retiring principal, Chris Hinger, said of watching students walk out for summer break for the last time. He added, “I love the students here, and I love the community, so it was sad.”
With the end of the 2024-2025 school year, Hinger is closing the book on 30 years of service to Archuleta School District (ASD), including 22 years as principal at the middle school.
“People say, ‘congratulations,’ and I always feel like it’s a mixture of both,” Hinger said, adding, “It’s a congratulations, you worked this long to be able to, you know, get retirement, and that’s a good thing, but ... when you love what you do and you love your community, and you love the kids here and the teachers, it is a loss, as well, so it was kinda sad to watch everybody leave for the last time.”
Hinger, who will be moving on to help with the family’s guest ranch more, adding that it’s been a bittersweet departure.
“It’s a real bittersweet, let me tell ya,” Hinger said, adding, “I love this job. It’s kinda what defines me now, but it’s time. ... Things are in a good place, and I’ve always said I wanted to retire when ... things were in a good place, and things are in a really good place for the school, for the teaching staff, all of it.”
ASD recently honored Hinger’s career through an ad in The SUN, which highlights Hinger’s impact on the district and school he led.
“His unwavering dedication to the education of the whole child has been a hallmark of his leadership,” it states. “Chris has fostered a school culture where academic excellence, personal growth, and community engagement go hand in hand. His commitment to students and staff has created an environment where everyone is valued, supported, and encouraged to reach their full potential.”
It later adds, “On behalf of the ASD community, we extend our heartfelt thanks to Chris for his years of service, leadership, and passion for education. His impact on generations of students, his colleagues, and our community is immeasurable, and his legacy will continue to shape and inspire our schools for years to come.”
Jumping into education
When asked about what drew him into the field of education, Hinger gestured to a series of items on his office wall about other educators in his family, including his grandfather, great uncle and mother.
“My folks always valued education. They instilled it in me to get a higher education,” he said, adding that his dad running the guest ranch in the summer offered a balance. “I’m very much a people person. I enjoy kids and I knew that ... there was a part of me that felt like education would be a really good fit.”
In college, when he got into his practicums and student teaching, he “really, really liked it,” he said.
He also knew he could work at the guest ranch in the summers to bolster his income.
“And now here I am going out there ... for the season. It’s kind of come full circle, because that’s always been kind of a dream as well,” he said of the guest ranch.
He noted he’s retiring to the ranch, not from teaching.
Hinger began serving as a middle science teacher and coach with the district in 1995.
“I always loved science and math in school, and so I think that’s what drew me into a science background,” he said, adding, “I’ve always been into rivers and streams, and growing up on the West Fork.”
He noted at the time he did his studies, there was a lot of stream restoration work happening, which also attracted him, but that education seemed to be a natural fit for him to make a living.
From teacher to principal
“One of the most memorable moments was teaching eighth-grade science with Dan Janowsky, David Hamilton, Lori Plantiko, Allen Thompson — that crew,” he said. “Those people were just really great educators and they knew how to have fun, ... and the kids knew how to have fun, and so it was just a really fun teaching time for me.”
He added he grew a lot under the principal at the time, Larry Lister, and learned a lot about teaching science and making it applicable to students.
Later, when Lister was getting closer to retirement, Hinger explained, he suggested Hinger should think about getting his master’s in school administration because he thought Hinger would make a good administrator.
“Larry was one of my mentors,” Hinger said, adding Lister was also his principal while he was in school and he learned a lot from him both as a teacher and an administrator.
At that, point, Hinger noted, he’d been teaching for eight or 10 years.
So, he, as well as a couple others from the district — Jason Plantiko and Mark DeVoti — all enrolled in and completed a master’s program.
When Lister stepped down after 23 years as principal, Hinger was chosen for the job, which he began in 2003.
Years later, an economic downturn led to what would ultimately be another of Hinger’s favorite moments — merging the administration of the fifth- and sixth-grade building with the seventh- and eighth-grade building.
“That was a real challenge, but was also this really cool opportunity to create a cohesiveness on this campus and get behind some initiatives that could influence four years of education ... versus two,” he said. “That merger then led to ... some expansion of adventure learning, the alignment of healthy school initiatives, and curricular initiatives lately that really enabled to us ... to really grow kids academically. ... That was kind of a cool opportunity that was handed to us from an economic downturn.”
He added it led to a cohesive middle school that is serving kids and the community well.
And the progress has continued, with the school having the highest growth score in the area on recent testing and positive results on the state’s School Performance Framework.
Hinger noted the school is only as strong as its teachers, and there has been strategy behind growing its teachers, including through using early release time to implement strategies with staff to using high-quality curriculum and having teachers become high-functioning teams that can watch each other both to learn and to offer feedback.
Hinger also highlighted the community that has been created, including with the staff, the students and the community.
“It’s middle school — it’s bumpy,” he said while discussing the work to create a supportive environment for students as they navigate their middle school years, such as counselors and safety-net programs that are offered in conjunction with the county’s Department of Human Services.
Hinger touched upon community partnerships, such as the school’s offering veterans breakfast annually, which he called “powerful,” and the spaces shared with the Town of Pagosa Springs.
He noted the community needs to be supportive of one another to thrive.
“It’s just a cool community,” he said.
Hinger also pointed toward the school’s focus on the whole kid, from being fit through more than typical sports to eating well.
“I’m proud of a lot of things,” Hinger said of his time with the school.
Learning through
adventure
Before Hinger took over as principal, students in seventh grade would venture for an overnight trip to either Chaco Culture National Historical Park or Bandelier National Monument.
Hinger would also take students around Archuleta County to learn about the geologic processes that shaped the area during his class, suggesting that process turned kids on to science.
That, he noted, helped him see how powerful it was to get kids outside to learn.
“Chaco and Bandelier were always just such powerful experiences, and so I immediately, when I became principal, started working towards an eighth-grade trip,” Hinger said, noting at the time he was only over the two grades.
Before long, he was able to hire some teachers who had strong experience with outdoor learning and strong skills, allowing the school to add an eighth-grade trip to Moab, which he called a nice step.
Then, when the schools merged, he noted it made sense that adventure learning would be one of the things that defines the school and makes it unique.
Hinger indicated he also drew on his time as a Boy Scout, where he took memorable trips a couple times a year to go do things like backpacking or canoeing.
“I think I took that outdoors experience that I had and said can we expand this in public school,” he said.
It also made sense to make the trips a progression as the kids moved from grade to grade, he suggested.
Fifth-graders now trek to Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, with sixth-graders spending one night at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
Turning over the helm
Taking over the helm at the middle school will be Josh Sanchez, who most recently served the district as the chief operations officer.
Sanchez previously served as a middle school principal in the state of Washington for 11 years, and taught math and spent a year as assistant principal at Pagosa Springs Middle School, as well as serving the district in other roles.
“This’ll be a really good fit,” Hinger said of Sanchez, noting Sanchez was a big part of changes to the middle school’s schedule that have allowed for more academic support and for students to take additional exploratory classes.
Hinger also highlighted that Sanchez, a Pagosa Springs High School graduate, really knows Pagosa Springs and is very well-liked.
In addition to his history in the community and district, and his time as a middle school principal, an announcement by the school district introducing Sanchez as the new principal states, “Members of the hiring committee were especially impressed by his thoughtful insights, collaborative leadership style, and unwavering commitment to student growth and success.”
“For me, it was all about just being an influential leader in our community,” Sanchez said, adding principals can be very influential with students and the community. “And that’s something I’m passionate about ... and have always believed in in my career.”
Sanchez noted he never thought he’d have the opportunity to be the middle school principal in his hometown, or serve in any facet of education in his hometown.
Sanchez suggested he hopes to carry on the work that’s already been done and continue to build partnerships with the community that will serve students.
“Having the opportunity to work with Chris ... I just admire his passion and commitment to students and the community,” Sanchez said, pointing to the thousands of students who passed through the school while Hinger was principal and the impact he had.
He called it an honor and privilege to follow Hinger and Lister.
“That’s amazing, to me, to think about,” he said.
randi@pagosasun.com
