Angelica Owens
Staff Writer
Within the last year, there has been some changes around the school. Community members outside the school may not be aware that we lost three teachers last year– in the summer Ms. Dunn, the english teacher for freshmen and seniors and Mr. Sherif, the BioChemistry teacher for freshmen and sophomores left to go somewhere else and then Ms. Giknis and Ms. Sessa took their places.
Mr. VK left during the winter break and will not be returning. He went to teach at Drexel. The students that have had VK during their time at this school knows that he loved the school very much and he always spoke to his students in the hallway when he saw them. We never would have thought he would have left us since he lives across the street from the school but he wanted to go and teach people how to teach within the STEM (science technology engineering and math) fields.
To come back in September of 2014 and to not see them was devastating. My personal experience with these teachers since I had both of them freshman year and then had Mr. Sherif again sophomore year is that they were both amazing people. Mr. Sherif called himself “doctor smiley” which made his students get to know that he was very happy to teach his students. Ms. Dunn was such a great teacher as well. Her energy lit up the room and she was very willing to help any student that needed extra help. Not only was Ms. Dunn a phenomenal teacher but she was really good at talking to students on a personal level so that you knew you could trust her with things. I’m sure both of these teachers will be missed by the whole student body.
“I was disappointed to hear Ms. Dunn left. She was an amazing English teacher and adult in the building to talk to. However, I’m really looking forward to having Ms. Giknis as a teacher for Reel Reading. I know she’s going to be a great teacher and make the class really interesting” – Nikki Adeli
However, despite the change, Sessa and Giknis are getting used to their new roles in the school.
“SLA is a bit different from the school I was at before. That school wasn’t labeled a “project-based” school, but science lends itself to projects and experimentations, so in that way it wasn’t that different. Though the content is a bit different, since biology and chemistry weren’t integrated there. I think the biggest change was the use of the laptops (which is awesome!) The teachers here have helped me with utilizing them to make projects.”- Sessa
The school also saw several changes in appearance. The library which used to be painted mint green is now a bright red color, which had the music room there. Also, the study skills class which used to be in room 206 relocated to the library with a lot more space. When study skills moved to the library to get rid of the loud noise of the music room, it moved to the 3rd floor.
The biggest change is one that isn’t definitely happening — the possibility of SLA moving locations to the central office of the School District, at 440 N. Broad Street.
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