FORT LUPTON – Experience coupled with a great sense of humor.
    That’s what the parents and kids of Fort Lupton Middle School have to look forward to in their new principal, Candace Kensinger. 
    While she is certainly quick with her wit, Kensinger’s resume is no joke, with professional stints teaching special education, most general education grades and administration roles in her background.
    Originally from Detroit, Mich., Kensinger graduated from Northern Michigan University with a bachelor’s in special and elementary education. After she moved to Wray, Kensinger worked for nearly a decade in special education and pre-first grade. In 1990, she moved to Greeley, where she taught as an affective needs teacher, another special education role.

    “Affective needs is for emotional/behavioral kids,” Kensinger explained, “students identified with an emotional disorder.”
    From special education, Kensinger moved to third grade for two years, then fourth grade for one year, then fifth grade for two more years.
    “I felt at that time that I needed to be in a general education classroom, because my goal had always been to become a principal. And I wanted to walk in the shoes of every teacher possible,” Kensinger said.
     In the same district, Kensinger, feeling the need for ever more challenging experiences, took on a special education role at the Platte Valley Detention Center. Following two years in that system, she moved back into elementary special education at the eighth-grade level, along the way picking up her master’s degree in special education with a focus on affective needs.
    “While I was doing my special ed eighth grade teaching, I was earning my Type D certificate, or principal licensure, which I finished in 2002,” Kensinger said. “From there, I went to Fort Morgan as the director of special education.”
    Now holding a district-level job that kept her at more of a distance from the student body, Kensinger began to miss the day-to-day interaction with the kids, her primary passion.
    “I wanted back in the schools,” Kensinger said. “So I earned the opportunity to become assistant principal at Shadow Ridge Middle School in Thornton. It was the second year after opening, and we had 1,300 kids.
    “After spending five years there, always seeking challenges and different experiences, I wanted to work at a Title One school (targeted at low income or at-risk students), which is where I was the past two years, at Niver Creek Middle School in Thornton,” Kensinger added.
    Despite her formidable experience, Kensinger is biding her time before instituting any changes, both to learn the ropes and to learn from the crew that landed top honors as National Association of Middle Schools’ Middle School of the Year.
    “I’m just wrapping my head around everything, including the schedule,” Kensinger said. “finding whatever is best for the kids.”

Contact Gene Sears at 303-659-2522, ext. 217, or email gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com