Episode 93: Meet Canyon Crest Principal, Mark Burge

13 birželio, 2025 /
Spenceris Tuinei /

Sup su "Sup

00:00 / 11:15

Wendy Dau: Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s what’s up with the Sup podcast. I am superintendent Wendy Dau. This week, I will be visiting with Mark Burge, the new principal of Canyon Crest Elementary. But first, let’s go over the updates.

The next school board meeting is on Tuesday, June 24th.
- Prieš posėdį apsilankykite rajono interneto svetainėje, kad sužinotumėte tikslų laiką ir visą darbotvarkę.

Welcome everyone to this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Sup. I’m here with Mark Burge. Welcome to our podcast.

Mark Burge: Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

Wendy Dau: So, Mark, you have been the principal at Provo Peaks Elementary for how many years?

Mark Burge: Seven years.

Wendy Dau: Holy cow. And now you are moving to canyon Crest Elementary. Okay. Well, let’s just start by telling us a little bit about yourself, because I think the Canyon Crest community needs to get to know a little bit about Principal Burge.

Mark Burge: Yes. So I’ve been in education for 24 years. Holy cow. Taught elementary school sixth grade is the best.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, I would agree. I love it. If I were gonna teach elementary school, I would teach sixth grade for sure.

Mark Burge: It’s so much fun. Yeah. My first job as a Principal was down in San Juan County. Okay? At Montezuma Creek Elementary on the Res’, Navajo Reservation.

Wendy Dau:

Mark Burge: It was a great experience. I learned a lot and just– wonderful people.

And then after seven years in San Juan district, I came up here to Provo District and I love it. And it’s an amazing place to be.

Wendy Dau: Oh, I love that you said that. And I didn’t even pay him any money to say that, so that’s good. What is the best part about being a principal?

Mark Burge: I love spending time with the students.

Yeah. It’s just a fun experience. You can be silly, you can have fun with them and build relationships with them, and they know that you care about them. And that’s one of the things that I really enjoy doing every single day.

Wendy Dau: One of the things I notice when I come to your school is that you know so many kids by their names.

I’m sure you know almost all of the kids, if not all of them by their name, but I remember we walked into a kindergarten class and there was a student who had a particular behavior struggles or whatever, and you knew exactly what to do with that kid. So you stepped right in. You helped support the teacher you knew how the kid was going to respond to different– I was so impressed by that, just how much you know about every single individual kid in your school.

It’s just, it’s impressive. I hope people realize that about you because you are high fiving kids and fist bumping and all the things.

Mark Burge: No, I appreciate you remembering that because, you know, every student goes through something every single day and it’s important for me to understand what makes them tick and what helps them get through their struggles.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. If I’m remembering right, you also played the recorder in one of the classes we went to. Yeah. I’m remembering this too. Yes?

Mark Burge: Yes. Back in the late 19– 1900’s, when I was in fourth grade, I remember learning Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on the recorder.

Yes. The one of those things that I do.

Wendy Dau: And the kids loved it. They ate it up. Yeah, they were so excited. So I’m excited for you to share those talents at Canyon Crest.

Mark Burge: I have many useless talents that I share.

Wendy Dau: That’s awesome. What do you want the Canyon Crest community to know? Like what is your passion? Like why do you love education? Why is it just in your blood?

Mark Burge: I love spending time with the kids, like I mentioned, and really helping them feel comfortable in school. School was not easy for me growing up. I struggled academically and socially, and I want all students to be able to feel comfortable when they come to school and know that we’re here to support them.

We’re their cheerleaders and they deserve a great education and somebody to be their cheerleader and be on their side.

Wendy Dau: What do you think as your most important job as a principal? You’ve kind of mentioned a little bit about helping kids feel comfortable, but, in your daily tasks or as you’re planning your school year, what are some of the things that you think, this is something I’ve gotta really pay attention to?

Mark Burge: You know, we wanna make sure that the teachers are given all the resources they need to be effective. I’ve met a lot of the teachers at Canyon Crest and they’re amazing.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, they are.

Mark Burge: It’s so fun to see their excitement about education, and I wanna be able to support them as well because they’re on the front lines.

They have very difficult jobs. I want to be there for them. They can make so much change happen in the students’ lives. Providing that support is one of the most absolute fundamental things in education and as a principal. Yeah. One of my most important jobs.

Wendy Dau: I agree. What are you most looking forward to at Canyon Crest?

Mark Burge: Just to get to know everybody. Going from Provo Peaks– Provo Peaks, and Canyon Crest– they’re different.

Wendy Dau: Very different, yeah.

Mark Burge: Very different schools. But it’s not gonna change the way I go about interacting with parents, with community members, and students and the staff. So I’m just excited to get in there and to, you know, work with– with everybody and–

Wendy Dau: Make cool things happen.

Mark Burge: Make awesome things happen–

Wendy Dau: Awesome Things happen.

Mark Burge: We, we love awesome things.

Wendy Dau: We like the– we love awesome things. Tell me what you hope parents know about you.

Mark Burge: I want parents to know that I’m available to listen. To hear any concerns or any suggestions– I wanna be able to work with them. They want what’s best for their children.

And I wanna work with them and try to make that happen for their kids. We’re on the same team. It is really a team effort to help their children learn and grow.

Wendy Dau: It really is a partnership for sure, yeah. One of the things I’ve noticed about Canyon Crest is just every time I go to an event there, and you were there, I think for their STEM night.

Mark Burge: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: –How many parents bring their kids? It’s a community event.

Mark Burge: Mm-hmm.

Wendy Dau: How many people are there to help and to make just magic happen! It’s a pretty phenomenal place.

Mark Burge: It was great. The first event I went was one of their PTA meetings at night.

Wendy Dau: : Gerai.

Mark Burge: Just to see the amount of support, the amount of parents who really are trying to do what’s best for their kids, yeah. And for the teachers– I love the support that they are giving to the teachers and– and the staff. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know a lot of the parents that were on the PTA.

And then their STEM night? It was just amazing. It’s so fun. The students were having fun teach– students were teaching me how to do some of the coding things.

Wendy Dau: Yes, I noticed.

Mark Burge: I had no idea.

Wendy Dau: I noticed.

Mark Burge: So it was good for them, you know, get to know them and– and I know a few of the parents because they had sent their kids to the CAS program at Provo Peaks.

Wendy Dau: Okay. Yep.

Mark Burge: It was good to reconnect with them and just an amazing group of parents who really want a great place for their students.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, they’re vested in education for sure. Tell me a little bit about what it’s gonna be like– well, first, let’s ask this question. Do you speak Spanish?

Mark Burge: No, I do however, speak a more popular language, which is Swedish. ’cause nobody speaks Swedish around here.

Wendy Dau: No, nobody. No. Nobody speaks Swedish around here. That’s true. My parents speak Danish. Nobody speaks Danish either. No.

Mark Burge: So, no, no.

Wendy Dau: But tell me about kind of what it’s gonna be like to be at a Dual Immersion school. ’cause it’s fascinating to watch like second graders spend like, their whole morning talking only in Spanish. And I’m just like, what is happening?

It’s so amazing.

Mark Burge: So, yeah, that’s a great question. I’ve never been a part of a DLI school before.

Wendy Dau: Mm-hmm.

Mark Burge: But I’m excited to see how it’s going to work. I did stop by a couple weeks ago and was listening to one of the sixth grade teachers talk to the students in Spanish.

Wendy Dau: Oh gosh.

Mark Burge: And they’re all just paying attention, listening. And I was very impressed with the communication they had all in Spanish. And the kids knew exactly what was going on. And so it’s gonna be a learning process for me. But I’m really excited to see how they can grow learning Spanish.

Wendy Dau: And they’re learning not only the language, but they’re learning different contents and–

Mark Burge: Exactly.

Wendy Dau: I mean, it’s amazing what our teachers are able to do. They’re pretty incredible.

Mark Burge: Definitely.

Wendy Dau: And their students, they’re, I– oh my goodness. I, I can’t even.

What do you think might be a challenge about Canyon Crest?

Mark Burge: One of the challenges that’s going to be is because it’s a different community will be being able to navigate that and to be able to utilize the parent support in a real effective way.

Not that we don’t have that at Provo Peaks, but I think there’s a little bit more that we want to be able to make sure it’s effective.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Mark Burge: And use it the best we can.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. We wanna direct all of that help in the right way.

Mark Burge: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: And there is a lot of help available. It’s very apparent.

Mark Burge: We love, we love all the help.

Wendy Dau: Yes. It’s incredible. Tell me a little bit about maybe one of your best experiences as a principal that we could share maybe with some of the kids so they could get to know kind of your more human side of principal Burge.

Mark Burge: A couple of us were walking with a student down the hallway and my, I didn’t have my Crocs. It was a crazy sock day, so I was wearing Crocs. I didn’t have my Crocs in sport mode.

Wendy Dau: Oh.

Mark Burge: And so I took a step. The croc fell off. I put my sock down on the ground. It slipped out from under me, and I had to do some awesome ninja skills to stop from squishing a first grader.

Wendy Dau: Oh my goodness. See, and you’re such a cool principal. You know the difference between sport mode.

Mark Burge: Yes. I went non-sport mode with the croc, and I wish I would’ve saved that on video ’cause it would’ve been awesome to see.

Wendy Dau: That would’ve been awesome to show people. Yeah. That’s great. What are some of the things that you do to celebrate students that you’ve done in the past at Provo Peaks that you hope to continue at Canyon Crest?

Mark Burge: At Provo Peaks, we were able to give out Puma Paws.

Wendy Dau: Mm-hmm.

Mark Burge: So teachers are able, or really any staff member– are able to recognize students for following the school expectations.

Wendy Dau: Mm-hmm.

Mark Burge: And it’s so fun for them to come into the office to show us what they got and get a little prize for that.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Mark Burge: I always ask them, why did you get this? And they’re able to explain–

Wendy Dau: Tai nuostabu.

Mark Burge: –This is what I did. But they’re excited to do that. And that’s one of the things that really– just something small that the students love.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Mark Burge: To get a little bit of recognition and also, you know, just every single day coming into the school, giving students high fives.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Mark Burge: And just really finding something about a student to compliment them about just so that they know that we care. So I– it’s the little things that really make a huge difference.

Wendy Dau: I always see you outside, like greeting students and then at the end of the day, you’re saying goodbye to them. Like you’re very visible and they all want to say hi to you.

Like when you walk down the hall, if they’re walking the other direction, they’re always like yelling your name. And so it’s really fun to watch that.

Mark Burge: Yeah, it’s fun.

Wendy Dau: They love you for sure, so. Well, we’re excited to have you at Canyon Crest. You’re gonna be an amazing addition to that community and just continue a lot of the great things that they’re already accomplishing.

Mark Burge: Definitely.

Wendy Dau: And I know they’re excited to have you, so.

Mark Burge: Well, thank you.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, thank you for being– thanks on our podcast! Whoo!

Mark Burge: I love it. Woohoo. Appreciate it!

Wendy Dau: Thanks everyone for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Sup. As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcast. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us a podcast@provo.edu.

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