Two CFHS teachers switching into new jobs

By: Sarah Stortz

Next year, the school district will go through yet another change by implementing a brand new program called Teacher Leadership and Compensation. The purpose of this state-sponsored program is to strengthen instructional practices by recruiting teachers from classes and encouraging them to become leaders by giving them supervisory roles over their peers. In order to implement this program, the school district had to submit a state application to qualify for the funding.

For the high school, both physics teacher Kenton Swartley and English teacher Courtney Lubs will be leaving their current jobs to work as the new STEM facilitator and an instructional coach respectively.

Swartley’s new job will consist of working with all schools in the district to promote STEM and connect it to other areas such as local community organizations and businesses.

“The two parts of this — the community and the STEM — are both things that I’ve been doing a lot of with robotics, and are both things that interest me, so I thought that it would be a new challenge that I would be excited about,” Swartley said.

Swartley said he is mostly looking forward to the process of trying to improve on what’s happening in the school district. “I’ll get a chance to research and learn myself on what good things are being done already in our school district,” he said. “I’ll also select those that are the best and try to promote those in our own schools so we can improve the education.”

As for Lubs, she will collaborate with other CFHS teachers to implement research-based teaching strategies and assessments. Additionally, she will also serve on the building leadership team and help to facilitate professional development.  ¨It’s different from teaching in that I won’t have specific classes and students I teach but will still be participating in teaching and learning,” Lubs said. “I am intrigued by the possibilities and am excited about the opportunity to learn and to grow.”

With both of these teachers switching, the school board will eventually look for replacement teachers along with deciding which English teacher will be the new head for the department. “Mr. Wedgbury is leading that process on finding a new teacher, but he has asked for my help doing interviews later when that happens,” Swartley said.

Although he said he feels mostly excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead, Swartley said that he’ll definitely miss working with his students every day. “I highly enjoy the process of teaching students a lot and developing classroom activities,” Swartley said “I’ll still be involved with that, but it won’t be at the same level where I’m doing it at a daily basis.”

Despite not being able to work only in the CFHS building anymore, Swartley still plans to continue working as a mentor for the robotics team next year.