This school year has brought new classrooms, new policies and new faculty. Park has welcomed multiple new teachers this year in both core classes and electives. After the first two weeks, people are beginning to settle in and have appreciated the effort made by teachers to make the classroom a community. Teachers said they want this year to go as smoothly as possible.
According to senior Ramona Mavis, having a sense of community in the classroom is important, especially in band with Park’s new teacher Ms. Haim.
“She makes an effort to get along with students. She’s a fun teacher,” Mavis said.
Junior Ailish Fitzpatrick has Ms. Siegle for biology. According to Fitzpatrick, Ms. Siegle was already making an effort to get to know her students early on in the school year.
“She works on getting to know her students, especially in the first week of school,” Fitzpatrick said.
According to Mavis, Park has lost several teachers and as a result, the district has hired many new staff members this year.
“[We have to] pick up where the old teacher left off…Mr. Schmitz was a really good teacher so I think a lot of people miss him,” Mavis said.
Biology teacher Siegle is new to the building this year and she said her first two weeks here were initially nerve wracking and also great.
“It’s been good to get to know the students. Everyone has been fairly respectful and it’s been a really good experience here,” Siegle said.
When asked if it was important for Park to continue bringing in new staff, Mavis said that it is important to have new faculty, but that Park should focus on their current staff first.
“New faculty is important but I also think it’s important to focus on keeping old staff members, ” Mavis said. “It’s important to have new faculty but it’s more important to have consistent faculty.”
Siegle said that students can make the year go more smoothly. According to Siegle, teachers have a big responsibility, sometimes things like grading may take a little longer for newer teachers
“Give us time to learn everything, give us grace and understanding. We do have a lot on our plate so it takes a little longer to get stuff graded. We are working at it. It’s just taking some time,” Siegle said.
