Battle Ground High School

Get to know BGHS Principal Charbonneau Gourde 

Charbonneau Gourde is the new principal of Battle Ground High School. Gourde took over for Mike Hamilton, who retired after last school year. For the past four years, Gourde was the principal of Covington Middle School in the Evergreen Public Schools district. Previously, Gourde was the associate principal of Heritage High School, the dean of students at Union High School, and an English teacher at Selah Middle School and Mountain View High School.

Finish this sentence: “I am excited/proud to be a Tiger because….”

I am excited and proud to be a Tiger because of the tradition and potential for future growth.  There are amazing teachers, counselors, support staff, and administrators here, and I feel like I have come home. I am very lucky to have been given the opportunity to support our students and community.

How many kids do you have? What ages/grades are they in?

I have four kids, ages 20, 17, and twin nine-year-olds. The oldest is a junior in college, the second oldest is a senior in high school, and the twins are in fourth grade.

Where did you grow up, and where did you go to school?

I grew up in Castle Rock, WA, and graduated from there. I graduated with my BA from Western Washington University, and also got my first MA there. I taught English for 10 years before becoming an administrator.

What are your favorite sports/teams?

Football is my favorite sport, with boxing and MMA running second. The Seahawks have been my favorite team since I was a kid, with the Packers being next in line. My favorite current fighter is Ricky Simon, who is a local young man I helped coach in wrestling in high school. He is currently in the UFC and is doing very well.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to spend as much time as possible with my family. I also like to read, exercise, camp, and hunt in the fall. I am also a tremendous movie nerd.

Tell us about your movie nerdery!

Most of what I like has to do with having been an English major and teacher, so I like well-developed characters and story arcs. I don’t normally like traditional action movies, but some are done well, like the first Bourne and Die Hard movies. I don’t generally like romantic comedies, but When Harry Met Sally is an all-time favorite. I like good horror, which doesn’t happen very often. I am a huge superhero and Star Wars nerd, but I pretend that the Star Wars prequels from the 2000s simply didn’t happen because they were so embarrassing. However, Rogue One and Solo were well done. Though they have yet to get a Batman movie exactly right, the Christopher Nolan versions were the closest to the spirit and tone that Batman is supposed to be. Even though we are being inundated with superhero movies now, for me it’s the fruition of a lifetime of hoping they’d be able to finally get them right. When I was a kid, that just couldn’t happen–the Nicholas Hammond Spider Man movies (not to mention the terrible made-for-TV Captain America attempts) were as good as they could have been for the time, but they were just so bad.

If you were a character in a Star Wars/Marvel/other action movie, which character would you be?

I am Batman.