Principal's Message

Welcome Challenger Families and Friends, my name is David Cherry, the principal of Challenger Elementary.  This is my 11th year at Challenger and my 19th year in education.  I live in Howell with my wife, Melissa, and our 2 children. We have a 12 year old daughter named Elyse and 9 year old son named Wesley.  Both my wife and I graduated from Michigan State and love to cheer for our Spartans.  I have the unique opportunity being a principal in our community, it allows me to lead knowing that the decisions that our school makes will affect those in the community that my family lives in and attends school.

I would like to share our core values with you to help you better understand how our school operates.  First and foremost we focus on safety in our school.  Our most important job is making sure your child comes home to you every day.  Secondly, we focus on your child’s emotional and social well being.  We strive to make sure that your child feels loved by staff and connected with friends.  Thirdly, we focus on academics.  Some may ask, “why would academics be your third priority?”  The answer to that is simple, kids simply cannot learn when they don’t feel safe and aren’t connected emotionally and socially at school.  Finally, we focus on the wants and needs of the parents and staff.   I find that when we focus on our core values in this order, kids feel safe, learning is happening, staff members are excited to come to work, and parents feel connected.

Our goal is to assure that each and every child feels as if it matters that he or she walks through our doors each day. While your child’s teacher will be communicating with you regularly on matters specific to his or her classroom, this newsletter will be coming home to you each month either by email or can be found on the website, filled with important information for all of our Challenger families. The our bi-weekly newsletter is intended to be just that—a crucial link between school and home—a primary source of communication with you. We will do our best to keep you informed of important events, activities, and procedures. Please set aside some time to read through it.

We are privileged to be your partner in your child’s success. If you have a question related to your child’s classroom or teacher, please begin your conversation with your child’s teacher. It is always best to begin dialogue with the person closest to the issue at hand. He or she can be reached via email, voicemail, or by setting up an appointment.

Our staff is eager to work with you. I, too, am available to discuss school issues with you. I can be reached via email, voicemail, or by setting up an appointment. We’re excited about the learning opportunities ahead! We welcome your involvement and your participation in making Challenger- the best place for your children to spend their days!



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