Sean C. Morgan
Luke Augsburger says he loves teaching children, and working as an elementary principal is a natural step for the high school social studies teacher.
Augsburger grew up in Myrtle Point, graduating from high school there in 2003. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and history at Oregon State University in 2008.
He went to work at Sweet Home High School in 2008 and graduated from Western Governor’s University in Salt Lake city with his master’s degree in education in 2010. He completed his administrator certification at Concordia University in Portland in July.
The School Board hired him as principal at Foster in March. He will begin working at Foster in August. Augsburger is married to Chelsea Augsburger, a graduate of Sweet Home High School and currently a Title 1 teacher at Foster. The district will move her to a new building next year, said Supt. Don Schrader.
“I love this community,” Luke Augsburger said. “I wouldn’t trade the small town lifestyle at this point. I love to go to the grocery store and see people.”
Augsburger said he never wanted to do anything but teach. After graduation, he went straight to college, and after graduation went straight into teaching in Sweet Home.
“It’s my first career, my only real profession,” he said. “For me it’s just always been about helping kids to grow and be a positive influence on people. I knew teaching was always my profession of choice. History made the most sense for me because I’m not very good at math. One of the hardest things for me is giving up teaching.”
He loves history and being that person who makes it interesting for students, he said, but being a principal will still give him an opportunity to bring energy to education and positively influence students – and he’ll be part of the entire school community.
He doesn’t have a long career in education yet. He is in his sixth year teaching.
”I got my administrative license because it’s just the next logical step, transition in education,” Augsburger said. “I wasn’t particularly seeking it out, but it opened up.”
He said he was just in the “right time and right place” to apply for the Foster position, currently held by retired Sweet Home educator Jan Sharp and previously held by Glenna DeSouza.
In recent years, Foster has received some of the disrict’s best marks in ratings based on state assessments and improvement in student achievement, and the school has led the elementary schools embracing supplemental Internet resources, such as ixl.com, which help students practice what they’re learning in the classroom. The school has consistently performed above the average compared to schools of similar size.
“One of the biggest goals of mine is to continue that improvement,” Augsburger said. “They’ve got a wonderful staff that puts in their hearts and souls, literally. I think the biggest thing for me is keeping the right people in the right spots, helping to continue that growth using the tools we have on hand.”
The school also features a lot of extracurricular work dedicated to helping students and promoting learning, from the annual Outdoor School to helping students in the Homework Club, he said.
He wants to continue the school’s efforts to integrate technology, he said. “It’s very important to be in the forefront of that,” and Foster has set a great example to follow.
It’s important for students to have access to different types of the technology they’ll need to know how to use as they grow up, he said.
He’s leaving teaching, but he’ll still be part of the things he loves most.
“I love kids,” Augsburger said. “I love watching them grow, and I love being a part of that experience.”