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On her first day at her new job, Christina Boursaw got to experience something that most adults don’t get to: recess.

Boursaw is the new principal at Kennebunk Elementary School. She spent her first day Wednesday getting to know the students and staff, sitting in on classes and lunches.

That’s a first step in building relationships, which she believes is one of the most important tools to giving students a good education. It’s the guiding light that she’s followed throughout her 20-year career in education.

“I think you can’t really learn until you have a relationship with the person you’re learning from,” Boursaw said.

Boursaw, 53, was named Maine’s 2025 National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals for her work at Sylvio J. Gilbert Elementary School in Augusta.

The California native, who moved to Maine in 2020, joins Regional School Unit 21 from Westbrook, where she was middle school principal for the 2025-26 school year.

“I loved it there … but I truly missed elementary school,” Boursaw said.

She succeeds Ryan Quinn, who resigned in June after a police investigation into allegations that he was abusive toward a 5-year-old student. (Quinn denied the allegations, and the investigation was closed after police found no evidence of abuse, but the RSU 21 board took steps toward terminating him prior to his resignation.)

Boursaw said one of her priorities is ensuring that students, who now more than ever benefit from a sense of belonging, feel safe making mistakes. From there, the actual reading, writing and arithmetic skills will only be easier to strengthen.

As her years in education have progressed, she said she’s watched many changes, chief among them technology.

Boursaw said that for a long period of time, as technology advanced, classrooms felt the need to implement it wherever they could. Now, as screen time seems to have more long-term impacts in the classroom, schools are starting to pull back.

“Technology’s wonderful,” she said. “It just needs to be used really purposefully, right?”

Boursaw believes that, from a national perspective, public education has been cast in a negative light. In reality, though, she has hope.

“It may be like people overall say, ‘Oh, you know, education’s in trouble,'” she said. “But I think anyone who spends time in a public school would say it’s full of people working incredibly hard who truly love kids and want the best for kids and want to partner with parents.”

Boursaw and her husband, Drew, have three adult children; two dogs, Leo and Chief; and a cat, Pippin. Her husband is also an educator, in Westbrook, and being able to shorten both of their commutes from their North Waterboro home has been a cherry on top of the kind, welcoming community that her family has now become a part of in Kennebunk.

In less than a week on the job, Boursaw’s new students have already invited her to a slew of their sporting events and dance recitals.

Who’s more excited — her or her students — is anybody’s guess.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Christina Boursaw’s name.