A look into the life of Karen Winter, superintendent of Western Christian Schools

CLAREMONT - To say Karen Winter has dedicated her life to Christian education would be an understatement.

With more than 35 years in education, a history of building Christian schools from the ground up and a lifetime of being involved with the church, Winter has become a leader in the world of Christian schools.

Winter is the superintendent of Western Christian Schools in Covina and Claremont, where she has been working for the school to acquire certain assets of Upland Christian Schools - an effort that she thinks may have been misunderstood by many parents.

"We don't always understand God's timing or why we go through challenges or different situations, and I haven't understood some of the challenges we've gone through or why some people misunderstood our intent," Winter said.

"I know my motives are pure, and our intent was very loving to the school or any of the parents or students."

Word of the acquisition leaked in September when it became known that the Anaheim District Church of the Nazarene approached Western Christian administrators about the sale.

Since then, many harsh words have been said about Winter and Western Christian Schools, which Winter says has caused equal pain for parents at Western Christian Schools.

"I think that I always have to be reminded that if I feel called to do whatever I'm called to do then I have to be unshakable," Winter said.

"Every single day, I have to stay focused as to what God has called me to do, and that's what I remind our staff about, too."

Shelley Marston transferred her children to Western Christian Schools this year from Upland Christian Schools.

"The unknown is always the scariest, and I think that's what a lot of people are dealing with, but what I have not understood is why Western has been made out to be the villain," Marston said.

"I think people who decide to stay will be very pleased. I think they will be very pleased with what they will get from Western. I think Western families tend to welcome you with completely open arms."

While Marston has concerns over Western Christian and Upland Christian Schools coming together, she said lack of clarity has never been an issue.

"She has answered any questions and had welcomed me anytime I had any further questions," Marston said about Winter. "She's been very helpful with my concerns about the two schools merging."

Winter became superintendent of Western Christian Schools in 2007.

"They had been on a national search. They had an interim superintendent, and they had been looking for about a year for a superintendent, purposefully looking for someone that was visionary, that would grow the school and had experience with building programs, vision and developing curriculum," Winter said.

"That's my strength, and that's what I've done at my last few schools, and so they called me and asked me if I would please come down and visit the school."

Winter said she was hesitant to move from her Northern California home in Vacaville where she had been superintendent of Vacaville Christian Schools for 17 years.

However, she fell in love with Southern California.

"I stepped foot on the campus, and I thought it was so beautiful and it was so peaceful and then the board shared the vision of what they had, and we prayed about it," Winter said. "We really prayed about it in our hearts, and it just meshed and was amazing. We fell in love. I love it down here."

Winter moved to Rancho Cucamonga with her husband of 36 years, Jack. They share two sons, Jonathan, 25, and Josh, 29.

Dalel Snider, parent of two sons at Western Christian High School, is a member of the schools' athletic booster club and has worked closely with Winter.

"Everything she has promised, she has delivered," Snider said. "We did not have a football field, and she promised we would have one and we did."

Snider said she views Winter as someone she can walk hand in hand with.

"It's really amazing what this woman has done. She really has transformed not just the buildings, but families and life," Snider said. "I have seen it in my kids. The way they get involved in all these things and how they've been helping the community as well. What she does is a mirror reflection of what all the kids are going to do."

When Winter graduated from Biola University, she had plans to be a public school teacher. But after the minister of her church, New Life Assembly in Corning, approached her about starting a school, her plans changed.

"I remember at first when the Lord said that's what he thought I should do, I started arguing saying I don't know if that's what I wanted to do," she said.

"It's hard for me to imagine now 36 years later that I could be passionate about doing anything else because I love it so much, and I'm so passionate about Christian education. I believe in it so much, and that's what I dedicated my whole life to doing ... and I love it."

Winter is the founder of Sonshine Christian Schools, Chico Christian Preschool and Vacaville Christian Schools' west campus for preschool through high school.

She has taught classes from preschool to college level, served as a mentoring teacher and trainer.

"I just love to speak and teach and train and be around teachers," Winter said. "I think when you're a teacher, you just love to teach and you love to be around other people who are excited about learning. You don't want to just be an administrator, you want to teach. That's what I started off doing, and I still love to teach and train."

Winter has also been a seminar leader for more than 30 years.

"People say I was effective in time management and asked me to speak on time management, and after that people started asking me to speak on other subject areas, and after a while churches and other schools started asking me to speak," Winter said.

"I'd get asked to speak at conferences, seminars and retreats, and your name gets out there and pretty soon people just say, `Speak on what you want to speak on, we just want you to speak."'

As a superintendent, Winter is involved in every aspect of Christian education.

"The superintendent has to wear all hats. You're the curriculum leader, you're the spiritual leader, you have to know the budgets, if you're growing a school you have to understand buildings and facilities, so there are a lot of hats that you're trying to juggle," Winter said.

"Right now one of the biggest challenges obviously is the economy and yet wanting to provide the very best Christian education and wanting to make it affordable for people and wanting to make it affordable to people at all levels," Winter said.

"It's challenging because in Christian education and in private schools everyone makes less money, but we're raising the bar and we're expecting more, so that is a big challenge as well, but it's a challenge we consider a privilege."

Parents of students enrolled at Western Christian Schools were recently surveyed so administrations could find out why they chose Western.

The two top priorities were spirituality and academics.

"They put them in the survey as equal," Winter said. "So they listed them as exactly the same and right up underneath that was nurturing and safe environment. Those were the top four issues that were important and why they chose to put them in our school. They feel that's worth it."

The eight graders at Western Christian are four years above the national average, Winter said.

"It's worth the money to them because they're kids are so much further ahead," she said. "Post high school means they're past high school level in eighth grade."

Ninety to 95 percent of Western Christian Schools graduates get into the colleges of their choice, Winter said.

The parents "want them to be ready. It's very competitive," she said. "It's so much harder to get into college and so many kids now take AP (advanced placement) and they're not getting into the college of their choice, so they want every single opportunity to do that."

Winter has been married to her husband Jack for 36 years. They share two sons, Joshua, 29 and Jonathan, 25.

"We're very sports minded," Winter said. "We kayak as a family and my husband mountain bikes, so we mountain bike. We like to do a lot of sports together."

Winter said she also likes to snow ski and water ski, but most of all she loves to cook and entertain.

"I like to just entertain and have my family around and have company over and just have people around," she said. "I love to just have our faculty over and just entertain and be with other people."