big shoes to fill

Madame Amy Roznos is seated at her computer, working on assignments for her French students. She has been greatly affected by language cuts as she is the only French teacher, and her classes have been cut down to French 3 and below. Photo by Bella Smith

students the ability to learn a second language, which I feel can be very beneficial to them when they grow up,” Mr. Wolfe said. “I think learning another language not only benefits the student by knowing a second language, but it also stretches the brain a bit and helps a student learn to get out of their comfort zone.”

Former Spanish student Ally Brower is a junior who took three years of Spanish before deciding to switch out Spanish with a different class.

“I used it mostly as a filler class. Yeah, Spanish was like an important thing to know, but it didn’t really feel like I was retaining anything,” Brower said. “I had a bunch of classes to take instead this year. And so I just couldn’t fit into my schedule.”

Head of the World Language Department, and one of the Spanish teachers, Dr. Jennifer Miller shared how a class makes it to the final schedule.

“Everybody enrolls in December, January, and then the principal takes all those numbers, and they say, we’re gonna put an average of, say, 26 kids in a class. They’ll do the math and figure out, say, 200 kids signed up for Spanish two. We divide that by 26, we get roughly eight sessions of Spanish 2. So I get those numbers from the principal and then I try to build a schedule.” Dr. Miller said. “Sometimes the principal comes to me and says … not many kids signed up for this language class … Sometimes we can run this class if we combine it with another class and then sometimes there’s just not room.”

Dr. Miller thinks that students perceive Spanish as easier than French and German, and therefore decide to take it for easier points, but there’s actually much nuance in what language a student would be best taking.

“There’s this perception that Spanish is the easy one. And so we get a lot of people that think, well, French and German are hard, which is not true. They all have their pluses and minuses as far as easy and hard,” Dr. Miller said. “If you want to be an engineer, you should probably take German. If you want to be a chef or work in fashion, maybe French is the right idea because there’s a lot of people you’re going to be working with who speak French in those areas.”

Dr. Miller continues to expand on her ideas by reiterating the fact that she believes that students stop learning the language at the most pivotal part of the learning process.

“Level two, you really start to see how knowing this language can benefit you and the rest of the world and stopping after level two is like running a marathon and stopping after like the first mile,” Dr. Miller said. “ It’s like why did you even bother?”

Watching on as seniors depart from the senior panoramic photo shoot, Principal Suzanne Leake helps get the class of 2023 back to their next classes. The new principal is attempting to honor the work of her predecessor, Dr. Sonny Arnel, while also leaving her own stamp on FHC. Photo by Makenzie Solis

Bringing Her Own Style

By Cadence Rulo

Staff Reporter After the wave of grief students succumbed to upon hearing Dr. Arnel had retired as principal of FHC, they were informed of the identity of the school's new leader, Dr. Suzanne Leake, on March 18. As the students and faculty begin the 2022-2023 school year they must not only transition into a new year with new classes, but a new leader.

Dr. Leake was no stranger to some students. Before becoming FHC’s head principal she was a PE and health teacher for eight years and a principal for 16 years. In those 24 years, she was principal at Bryan Middle School for six years where some students attended.

“I was ecstatic. I was really excited, but I felt like I had to temper that a little bit because I didn't want the people at Bryan to feel like [I’m] trying to leave [them] because that was not the case. I knew it was going to bring challenges,” Dr. Leake said. “It's been good so I was super excited, but I didn't want people to feel like I wanted to leave them. But you know, the kids at Bryan who come to Howell Central, we celebrated.”

Even with all the excitement Dr. Leake was feeling, she was still worried.

“I think it's just the big shoes to fill. Dr. Arnel is a loved person. He [brought] a lot of energy. And while he and I share the same mission and vision for the school, we have very different styles,” Dr. Leake said.

When Dr. Leake had heard students input on what they wanted in a principal, she was nervous. However, as the first spirit days came into play, Dr. Leake wanted to make sure students knew she was dedicated to them.

“One of the things within the student input over and over was [that] Dr. Arnel will dress up in spirit days. Dr. Arnel, you know, has a lot of fun with the student body. So it's out of my comfort zone but it's not something I'm not willing to do.” Dr. Leake siad. “And if that is important to students, then it has to be important to me, because it's not about me. You know, it's those things we do for kids.”

When Dr. Leake had heard the news of Dr. Arnel’s retirement, she wanted to make sure FHC was in good hands.

“I just really take a lot of pride in this community and I believe that the person who has the opportunity to sit in this seat has to have a strong desire to want to sustain all those things that have already been built up. Because just like anything else, things can be torn down really quick.” Dr. Leake said. “We also live in this community. So it's important to me that the high school of the community that we live in is a strong family welcoming, all inclusive place.”

With the adjustment to a new year and new principal, Mrs. Kelly DuBois stood in the middle of it all. After being administrative assistant for Dr. Arnel for five years, she is now in the same role for Dr. Leake.

“I feel like it was a smooth transition. It is different. They have different work styles and personalities, but I think it went smoothly. We are still trying to learn how to work together, but I think it's going very well. It’s been a positive change.” Mrs. DuBois said.

Staff, and students, have been in the face of this new beginning. Trevor Wolfe is a guidance counselor at FHC and has been working there for 23 years. As the school year began, Mr. Wolfe felt Dr. Leake was a good fit for FHC.

“Working with Dr. Leake has been awesome. She does a great job of seeing the big picture of our school needs.” Mr. Wolfe said.

As Dr. Leake settles into FHC, she recognizes and cherishes the community it has.

“You come first here and it's not about me and it's not about you individually, it's about us. And if we don't learn this curriculum today, it's okay. If you're taken care of, then we can do this tomorrow…So, that's what I love about here.”