East Grand School District board members confirmed Assistant Superintendent Courtney Lincoln as the district’s next superintendent at a Feb. 17 meeting.

Lincoln has lived in Grand County since 2008, bringing over 20 years of experience in education. She stepped into her current role just before the 2025-26 school year began and became a strong contender for superintendent when Brad Ray announced his resignation, effective June 30.

Starting as a teacher

Lincoln grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut where she attended Hall High School. She began teaching in 2003 as a special education instructor in Boston at a residential facility for students with autism and behavioral disorders and later moved to Michigan, where she continued working in special education and earned her teaching certification in emotional impairments and science from Eastern Michigan University.

Lincoln served a total of 10 years in Grand County classrooms; upon relocating to Hot Sulphur Springs in 2008, she joined Middle Park High School as a special education science teacher. During that time, she also completed her master’s degree in teaching from Adams State University in Alamosa before moving to Granby Elementary, teaching for four years in special education and as a reading interventionist. 

A district leadership opportunity marked a career transition for Lincoln. As the instruction and assessment coordinator, she oversaw project-based learning initiatives and districtwide engagement strategies. While in that role, she earned her educational specialist degree from the University of Northern Colorado, becoming licensed as a special education director in 2020.

Taking on a bigger role

In 2021, she joined the Northwest Colorado Board of Cooperative Educational Services as a special education director, overseeing services across six rural districts, including East Grand. Following Steamboat Springs’ departure from the BOCES administrative unit, which created a $750,000 budget shortfall, Lincoln was appointed to fill a joint executive director and special education director role to help alleviate the budget deficit. 

She led the organization through a major restructuring, working with multiple superintendents to stabilize the budget and streamline services while limiting cost increases to member districts.

“I got to lead that organization through the changes that happened,” Lincoln said. “We had to restructure basically from the ground up: really looking hard at what we were doing with our central office and how we provided services for special education students in all of our districts. I had to get five superintendents on board to agree to our budget.”

By successfully reorganizing and streamlining several Northwest Colorado school district budgets, Lincoln learned how imperative transparency and cooperation are to a leadership role, she said. 

“That was the experience that has really taught me and helped lay the foundation for me to step in and become the next superintendent,” she said of her time as the Northwest Colorado BOCES executive director. 

However, she said, while overseeing the Northwest BOCES districts gave her ultimate responsibility for all of its students, the role limited her ability to make a direct impact at the district level.

“I really liked that organization,” she said. “In fact, it was a great job, and I miss it. But in order to make more impact for kids, you have to come back to a district.”

Lincoln became East Grand’s first assistant superintendent in July of 2025, with hopes of becoming superintendent upon Ray’s resignation. The two are currently working together on a transition plan with a gradual release of responsibilities to smoothen the transition, she said.

Priorities as superintendent

Lincoln pointed to East Grand’s five-year strategic plan as the “roadmap for the district.” The plan, guided by a community-involved strategic planning committee, prioritizes student success, staff retention and local partnerships.

For Lincoln, the big priority is student success — in particular, she said the district aims for higher test scores across the board and to close achievement gaps for marginalized groups.

Declining enrollment is another issue she hopes to tackle, but changes in student body numbers are multifaceted, she said. While some students are choosing online programs for flexibility, the district also recently graduated a large senior class and enrolled a much smaller incoming kindergarten class — a swing of 27 students. At the elementary level, frequent family moves in and out of the district have also contributed to fluctuating numbers.

The district is still in the information-gathering stage for exploring its own online education options, Lincoln said, as leaders respond to declining enrollment and shifting student needs.

“We have kids who are going to online school for a variety of different reasons, and so it is multifaceted,” Lincoln said. “We have to really think about all the different reasons this is happening, and how do we put a plan in place to address all the reasons and not just one reason?”

At the same time, Lincoln reaffirmed the district’s commitment to in-person education.

“It’s the best quality option for most students,” she said. 

Still, she acknowledged that online learning can be a strong fit for some families, such as those involved in competitive athletics or seeking greater flexibility.

Outside of the school setting, Lincoln also serves as an alpine race coach with the Winter Park Competition Center. She said coaching has helped her build relationships with students beyond the classroom and maintain connections within the school community, which she hopes to continue even while serving as superintendent. 

She enjoys sports as much as her husband, Scott Hicks, who is the athletic director for the school district. The two are “committed to the school and the students” in both academics and athletics, she said.