CRESWELL — To Kathryn Holst’s surprise, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, she was awarded $1,000 and named one of Oregon’s Regional Teachers of the Year. Although Holst’s peers were not as surprised since they saw her endless daily efforts, Holst said everyone at Creswell Middle School deserves recognition for their work. “It feels a little off to be receiving an award or recognition when I cannot think of anyone that wouldn’t deserve that,” Holst said humbly.
But Holst has the track record to prove she deserves it. She has been at Creswell Middle School since 1994, and in 2022, she received the Oregon State VFW Teacher of the Year Award. Per the Chronicle’s request, Holst shared some of her insight and advice for teachers after years of learning and growing in her field.

Holst poses next to her family, who made a surprise appearance at her award assembly. BOB WILLIAMS / CHRONICLE PHOTO
Her first piece of advice for teachers is to be open to help. “You know, sometimes people might feel like they can’t let on that they don’t know everything, and so they don’t get the help they need,” Holst said.
She said when she first started at CMS, her fellow teacher in the Special Education department was a massive help to her and guided her through the initial bumps of beginning a teaching career. Holst also credits CMS and her colleagues’ atmosphere as the perfect place to receive and offer help.
“It’s unique in that we are small enough that there aren’t generally more than one teacher [for a subject per grade level],” Holst said, but she emphasized this helps make CMS such a collaborative place.
“I think there’s sort of a stereotype that the larger districts and the larger schools and the larger cities, that’s where you’re high-quality teachers are,” Holst said, “I know that they have high-quality teachers,100%, but as do we in the smaller, you know, rural areas.”
Besides being open to collaboration, Holst also said she had to be open to change in her field.
About a decade ago, the Common Core standards came into schools, which completely changed how Holst taught her Special Education classes. “It was a huge learning year for me, and the kids responded well,” Holst said.
Holst saw that her students could be challenged more with that curriculum, and their self-worth and interest in education increased. Holst explained that her students felt they could “do hard stuff, and it is hard, interesting, fun.”
But at the end of the day, Holst’s success can be credited to her love for her job. “It’s more fun and less of a job because it’s just fun like it’s fun all day long . . . even when things are difficult, you’re turning it around to see the positive of it,” she said, “and the experiences that you have with the students, like that just drives you.”
Holst has always cared deeply for her students, but after she had her children, she felt an even greater connection to them. “The kids in your class change from being a student to being someone’s child,” she said.
That’s why if Holst wins the overall Oregon Teacher of the Year award, she would want the $5,000 that goes to her school to be used to create an opportunity for the students to “just be kids” and have a party. “They’re 14 years old, but they [are] still kids. They’re young, giving them the opportunity to be kids and do kid things. That would be another great thing to spend that on,” she said.
Holst also suggested that the prize money could be used to give students more books in the library and more recreational activities on campus.
Although society has changed significantly in the last 10 years, Holst said that CMS’s positive climate has always stayed the same and remains a place where students, families, and teachers can succeed.