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Principal's Message

Nederland Middle-Senior High Community

Gavan Goodrich

Welcome to the start of the 2023-24 school year! I am very excited to begin a new year serving the Nederland community and all of our 6th through 12th grade students. My personal mission is to make the school experience of each student safe, accepting, and engaging. 

Nederland Middle-Senior High School is committed to working with parents and guardians, as we look for ways to collaborate together while your students are here. Our goal is to provide the necessary instructional inputs that produce strong student performances and learning. 

It is my belief that our students benefit greatly from quality experiences that are formed through involvement in our academic programming, fine arts and athletic offerings. The more involved the better, especially in a small school like Nederland MS/HS. It is what makes our school a great place for students to grow and learn. 

Finally, I live locally and love the Nederland mountain community. This is a place where people care about each other and have great hope and aspirations for their kids.

More About Mr. Goodrich

As background, I am a native of Detroit, Michigan. After attending West Bloomfield High School, I graduated from Michigan State University. Go Green! Go White!

My first job outside of college was in an advertising agency in Chicago. From there, I worked for several Ad Agencies in San Francisco for the next eight years. While living in California I met my wife Cindy and we had our first son Cal; my second son Chris was born in Dallas; both attend college and work here locally.

Before coming to Colorado over 9 years ago, we lived in Texas (over 20 years), I switched careers, enrolled in college to obtain my teaching credentials (History and ESL) and to complete a master’s in education administration from the University of North Texas. I started my teaching career at Highland Park High School, one of the highest-performing schools in Texas. I taught middle school and high school social studies and coached football and basketball.  

My first administration job was at a middle school in McKinney, Texas. While in McKinney I served as a middle school assistant principal, an associate high school principal and a middle school principal. After seven years in McKinney, I moved to the Lovejoy school district, where I joined a small team of administrators and helped start-up the secondary program from scratch. After serving as the middle school principal for five years, I moved to Lovejoy High School, where I served as its principal for four years.

After serving as the principal at Ralston Valley High School (Jeffco) for four years, I took an opportunity to become the principal of McLain Community High School and Long View High School, the largest Alternative Education Campuses in Jeffco.

Hobbies:  Watching sports, cooking, hiking, and running (I have run Boston – 2008).

Family: Married to Cindy Goodrich, two sons Cal and Chris

Education: West Bloomfield HS, Michigan State University, University of North Texas – MEd

Career: 11 years in the advertising agency business, 29th year in education

Towns lived in: Detroit MI, East Lansing, MI, Chicago IL, San Francisco CA, Deerfield Beach FL, Dallas TX., Golden CO