As Dr. Jeff Prickett begins to pack things up to move onto his next opportunity, he has opened the door for many other MCHS staff members to explore new opportunities within the school.
With Dr. Prickett, principal of Upper Campus, leaving as of the end of this school year, many changes are taking place. This includes Gregory Eiserman, current principal of Freshman Campus, moving to become principal of Upper Campus, and Sean Sterner, current Social Science division chair, moving to become Assistant Principal at Freshman Campus. In addition, Social Science teacher John Lunkenheimer will be filling in Sterner’s shoes.
After Dr. Prickett announced his leave, Eiserman was approached with the opportunity to become principal of Upper Campus.
“I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to move to Upper Campus,” Eiserman says, “I love the Freshman Campus and the people there, but my career goal has always been to be the principal at Upper Campus, so I am very excited.”
In addition to Eiserman being approached with a new opportunity, so was Sterner.
“I’m gonna miss everyone here at the Upper Campus,” Sterner says. “Being the division chair has been amazing. I have a lot of close coworkers that I work with on a daily basis, and then not seeing them all the time. It’s gonna be tough, but at the same time, I’m looking forward to the next opportunity.”
Moving to work with freshmen is a big decision, but it is great for a multitude of reasons.
“It’s a great opportunity to impact kids, and that’s what I want to do the most,” Sterner says. “As assistant principal there, I’ll have a chance to interact with students in a different setting, and that’s what excites me, and really why I went into education in the first place.”
The process looks a little different for picking a new division chair. Unlike a regular job interview, multiple social science teachers participated in the interviews searching for their new department head.
“So in a teacher’s interview, you’re trying to get a sense of what kind of teacher that person’s going to be in the classroom,” Jon Niemic, a social science teacher at MCHS says, “but, when you’re selecting a leader of teachers, you sometimes have to get to know them more, know what their experiences are, and think about what type of leadership they’re going to bring to our department, while also considering that we have a lot of good things going on in the social studies department.”
Eventually, the teachers and administration came to a conclusion, and John Lunkenheimer will be the next Social Science division chair.
“I’m really excited,” Lunkenheimer says, “filling in Mr. Sterner’s role is a big one to fill. However, we feel we have one of the best departments in the school, and we have a lot of great people to work with. I’m definitely ready and looking forward to this new opportunity.”
“I don’t know if I ever really wanted to be in an administration role, as a teacher,” Lunkenheimer said. “I really like being in the classroom and being with students. But, with Mr. Sterner leaving, and my completion of my master’s in the principalship, which is certification to be in an administrative position, it kind of just came together, all at the same time.”
Even though there are still a few roles to fill, it seems that MCHS is off to a great start. Students and staff can expect great things for this next coming school year, and it shows.