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Meet Quest Principal Kelly Osterhout

Kelly Osterhout comes from a “big education family.” Her grandparents, several aunts, and cousins were all educators, so it should come as no surprise that Kelly wanted to become a teacher as well. “Ever since I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher. I played school at home with my brothers and sisters.” But as she got older, a love of numbers also started to creep in.
 
“Through high school I became very interested in math, which led me to my first year of college where I majored in accounting. It wasn’t long before I realized that wasn’t my passion, and I knew all along that teaching was. I switched over to teaching as my major and I knew I was in the right place.”
 
Throughout Kelly’s teaching career, she’s been open to new opportunities, and her passion has always led her to the next right step. First, she became a teacher, then a lead teacher where her roles and responsibilities changed. She enjoyed what she was doing and decided to seek more job opportunities aligned with that. As a result, she received more leadership opportunities and more spaces where she could work with teachers.
 
“When a position opened up at the school for a math curriculum coach, I knew that was a great way to work alongside teachers and help them. I really enjoyed coaching, but the longer I did it, the more I realized I was missing students! I didn’t have a happy balance of time with teachers and students so that path led me to NHA, where I learned and grew in leadership, discovered how to run a school with parents and community, and eventually the door opened to become principal.” Just like she felt when she decided to switch majors, arriving at her current position has felt like a step toward where Ms. Osterhout is really meant to be.
 
“This was the right position for me. It leaves such a big impact on me when I observe staff, students, and parents working together for our common goal of student success. Coming into class, I want everyone to feel that we have a really good family culture here. We work hard, but we laugh, too. We are all there to make sure every child is learning at the level they need to learn at. I look forward to coming to school each day.”
 
In her free time, Ms. Osterhout loves to read and spend time with her family. She’s been married for almost 21 years and has three children. They love to vacation as a family and often take spur of the moment trips where they just pick up and go somewhere together. “We go camping or to hotels. We don’t care where we go, it’s just fun.”