Approximately two years ago, Dave Zylstra was a fifth-grade teacher at Oak Harbor Christian School and decided to go through a mentorship to gain experience in school administration.
For about six months, he followed principal Abe Geertsema getting some exposure to administration.
“I’ve always dabbled with the idea of getting into administration,” Zylstra said.
It turned out to be a sign of things to come as he became principal of Oak Harbor Christian School in early July.
He has been teaching at the Christian School for 13 years. Five of those years has been spent teaching third grade and spent the last eight years teaching fifth grade.
Zylstra is originally from Lynden where he attended Lynden Christian School. He went to college at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
He is not the only member of his family involved at the Christian school. His wife, Marianne, teaches seventh grade math while his daughter, Morgan, is entering the second grade and his son, Curtis, is starting kindergarten.
His goal as principal is simple — just take Oak Harbor Christian School in the direction it’s going.
“I’m not looking at making huge changes,” Zylstra said. “I don’t think I need to do that.”
Even though his isn’t going to be making changes, he still has a lot to do before the school year begins.
The Christian School is still accepting students and final enrollment, which helps decide how much staff is needed, isn’t available yet.
Construction continues on a new building at the school that will provide more classroom space for students.
Zylstra said it will probably be several weeks into the school year before it will be ready to house students. He didn’t know yet how that is going to effect classes in the fall.
While officials are looking at enrollment numbers, Zylstra said curriculum reviews are also taking place.
He added he wants to continue to improve the way the school is run and continue the work of his predecessors.
“The number one goal is to teach (students) to be Christ’s servants when they leave,” Zylstra said.
He is taking over for Clark Donnell who will remain at Oak Harbor Christian School as development director. In that role, he will continue his efforts to increase enrollment and donations coming into the school.
