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Mr. Cowan's Biography
Welcome to Assistant Principal Chris Cowan's website!
C.T. Koontz Intermediate School
Assistant Principal
Phone 828-684-1295
My life began as the youngest of five children in a
small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Without question, most of my
earliest memories are of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers and their record
4 Super Bowls in my younger days. Although I haven't lived there for
over 17 years, Pittsburgh will always be my home, and Sundays will
forever be devoted to the Steelers!
The 2015-2016 school year will be my 19th year as a
public school educator and third year as the Assistant Principal of
Charles T. Koontz Intermediate. I began my educational journey by
attending Old Dominion University and graduating from Duquesne
University in Pittsbugh in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. During some time away from formal schooling, I learned some life
lessons, and I decided it was time to get on with my life's work and
pursue a career in public education.
In 1997, after graduating from Duquesne University with
a Masters Degree in Elementary Education, I set off for Williamsburg,
Virginia to begin my first teaching assignment. I taught third grade
for three years before I realized the sleepy hamlet was not enough
action for young adulthood, and I ventured to Northern Virginia in
search of a teaching position in Fairfax County. At Laurel Ridge
Elementary, I taught third and fifth grades for five years.
It was in 2001 that I met my future wife Amy while
attending a Widespread Panic concert in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon
afterward I convinced her to move from Boulder, Colorado to Fairfax,
which was no easy feat. Living in the fast pace of NOVA took its toll
on our souls, and we longed for the mountains and a slower pace of
life. A Widespread Panic show in Asheville was all that was needed to
spur a relocation to this picturesque location of Western NC.
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Prior to moving to Koontz as a fifth grade ELA/SS
teacher for the 2011-12 school year, I was employed at Valley Springs
Middle School for six years, beginning with an assignment in the seventh
grade and then taking over a position as an eighth grade ELA teacher
the following year. It is hard to believe that my first group of kids
graduated in 2011 and many have now graduated from college.
In January of 2010 I resigned as Head Football Coach at
VSMS, a position I retained for three years, to pursue my goal of
becoming a future public school administrator. In early August of
2012, I received my Post-Masters Certificate in Public School
Administration through WCU.
My wife Amy and I welcomed our first child, Annalee,
into this world on the morning of October 31, 2010, just in time for a
Steelers game that night. Without any question, she has brought
countless joyous moments into our lives ever since.
The three of us live in Fletcher with our elderly and blind dog Sadie.
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