Globe Newsmagazine, September 2021, Issue 1, Vol. 93 by CHS Globe

Gl be NEW CLAYTON TEACHERS . VOLUME 94 . ISSUE 1. CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOL. CLAYTON, MO. SEPTEMBER 2021.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! The Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. We receive no funding from the school district for printing. Each issue of the Globe costs approximately $2,000 to print. We are deeply grateful to our sponsors for their support of our publication. They make our work possible. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us at globe@claytonschools.net

Issue Level Sponsors ($2,000+ level) Gail Workman Clayton Education Foundation

Golden Greyhound Sponsors ($200+ level) St. Louis Suit Company All In Clayton Coalition Dale Avenue Pediatrics Yeung Realtors Dave Stine Woodworking Carlie Chiou

World Traveler Sponsors ($100+ level) The LaGesse Stanton Family Bob and Betsy Cuneo Christy Auston Peter and Sheila Nadin The Chung Family Gita Krisnaswamy Angela and Troy Quinn The Erlin Family The Family of Lary Baker Kay Quinn Malone Marica and Josip Kos The Slen Family

COVER

Welcoming New CHS Teachers by Isabella Bamnolker, Emma Baum, Vivian Chen, Alex Cohen, Ella Cuneo, Enoch Lai, Shane LaGesse, Kirby Miller, Kaia Mills-Lee & Ruby Nadin

NEWS

Staff Shortages in Clayton

by Allison Booth, Shane LaGesse, Ruby Nadin & Alex Slen

REVIEW

A Bookstore for the Community by Ella Cuneo, Avie Mallon, Charlie Meyers & Ivy Slen

Gl be STAFF

Editors-In-Chief Ella Cuneo Shane LaGesse Ivy Reed

Chief Digital Editor Kaitlyn Tran

Senior Managing Editors Owen Auston-Babcock Vivian Chen Seraphina Corbo Kate Freedman Alexandra Hagemeister Kaia Mills-Lee Ana Mitreva

Section Editors

Reporters

Stella Bishop Alison Booth Samantha Braidwood Zoe Daniels-Sankey JiaLi Deck Pranoy Fernandes Kenneth Gould Norah Gross Riley Kerley Charlotte Meyers Caitlin Kuhlmann Micah Lotsoff Sidra Major Avie Mallon Sam McDonough

Omeed Naemi Poppy Orchard Caleb Park Katie Perrin Spencer Pompian Abby Rosenfeld Ivy Slen Samuel Smith Abigail Stone Samuel Sun Leo Taghert Charles Thompson Kipp Vitsky Chloe Wolfe

Copy Editor Ruby Nadin

Art Editor Sonali Dayal

Photo Editor Lily Kleinhenz

Page Editors Isabella Bamnolker Chloe Creighton Izzy Erdmann Maya Goldwasser Sahithya Gokaraju Isra Kayani Sophia Lu

Charlie Meyers Charlie Miller Kirby Miller Naveed Naemi Iris Park Sophie Srenco Sofia Mutis

Photographers Angela Wirthlin Ava Marsden Esther Wang Gabrielle Thomas Kendall Turner Maci Klaus

Maya Richter Sofia Klein Owen Wohl Paige Conrad Sophie Matiszik

Professional Affiliations: Journalism STL, Missouri Interscholastic, Press Association, Missouri Journalism Education Association, Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Please visit chsglobe.com for our editorial policy, mission statement, and ethics code. You can contact us at chsglobe@claytonschools.net with comments, story ideas or letters to the editor.

From the Editors

Globe’s co-editors-in-chief reflect on their time at CHS and look forward to the year ahead

his time two years ago, I was still struggling to map the landscape of CHS in my head. It was a mystery which packed staircase I should venture up in blind hope of finding my next class, and I barely knew the science wing on the third floor existed until sophomore year. I tried to stick to the places that felt safe: the Globe offices, the speech and debate room, my classrooms scattered across the school. It felt like I had just begun to feel comfortable at the high school by March 2020, when the progression of our high school experiences was uprooted for what we all thought would simply be an extra-long spring break. Obviously, that extra week of break would turn into a year and a half that would throw every one of us a massive curve ball. I haven’t experienced a normal day in high school since. High school is about finding your place in a community. For most students walking the halls this year, our ability to settle into our places over the course of our high school careers has been disrupted by a year and a half of virtual school, constantly shifting schedules, social distancing and disrupted extracurriculars. Seeing the freshmen in the hallways, I’m reminded of that distinct discomfort of freshman year. I think about how much harder it must be it must be for them as we emerge from the pandemic and learn how to take up space as members of a community again. I hope that over the next year, we are able to once again find comfort in our shared experiences as students. I hope that now more than ever, we we can find in each other the empathy and connection that we need.

miling with my eyes has become a necessity and a common experience. Walking around the halls of Clayton High School as a freshman, I never anticipated needing more than a simple upturn of the lips to greet someone new. I took advantage of the team-bonding activities, the sports games and the peprallies, thinking ‘I will have three more years of this.’ Over the past year, we have lost the community connection that Clayton used to provide. Covid-19 limited our conversations to screens and it became a commonality to avoid other human interactions. Now, as more and more people are getting vaccinated, it is time to reconnect… and not through Wifi. While the masks also deny a simple smirk, I have come to realize that taking on my fourth year at CHS is going to take an eye-crinkling smile and a little extra effort. On the first day of school, it was overwhelming with the amount of people who filled the halls, but there was also excitement. Everyone was excited to see one another. This year, I want to go to the field hockey games, to the basketball games, to take an extra second to look at the art on the walls but most importantly, I want to enjoy the company of people. So, please, come to the activities, dress silly on pep days, cheer for your peers, start rebuilding the CHS community. Now, in my senior year, my back sits a little straighter and I walk through the halls with more confidence because I know I have a year left to help restore the Clayton community.

IVY REED EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ELLA CUNEO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

’m still a second-semester sophomore. At least, I feel that way sometimes, and I’m sure that I don’t stand alone. It’s as if somebody hit the fast forward button and all of a sudden, I’m supposed to apply for college in a few months when I’m still waiting for my spring break to round out the 2019 school year. Of course, there was a 2020-2021 school year, and I both became and finished being a junior. We all came to school for about half a year, where we saw about half of each others’ faces for about half the time. So yes, now it’s time for us to be seniors. If not entirely ready, I’m still excited. In some sense, I feel like we, as the class of 2020, hold the burden of making up for what we missed. If not just for ourselves, to the classes below us who haven’t experienced a full “normal” year of high school. And I’m ready to tackle that burden. Contrary to what my aired grievances might suggest, I don’t think that we’re a fragmented group of students, doomed to suffer a mediocre end to an abnormal high school career. The entire population of CHS is, I believe, eager to connect and create the kind of community we grew up watching in teen coming-of-age movies. We’re ready for sports games, debate tournaments and homecoming. We’re all still getting used to the new school year, and we all still have APs and standardized tests to study for. I also know that this year still won’t be what I imagined it would look like as a freshman. Despite this, and the fact that my sophomore memories sometimes seem too recent for total comfort, I’m more than ready to finalize my four-year career at CHS. Even more, I’m ready to send it off with a bang.

SHANE LAGESSE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A Strange Beginning A class of new teachers entered the Clayton School District for the 2021-2022 school year. This marks the third school year affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

ALEX SLEN NEWS SECTION EDTOR PHOTO BY TONY ARNOLD

Staffing Shortage Over a year into the Covid pandemic, restaurants in Clayton are still feeling its effects in hiring workers

Crushed Red, located in downtown Clayton. PHOTOS BY RUBY NADIN, COPY EDITOR

he Covid-19 pandemic fettered restaurants. They shut doors and shuttered windows as customers dwindled and workers dissipated. Over 16 months later, the scars of the pandemic remain as staff shortages and decreased hiring throttle the food industry throughout Clayton. The early months of the Covid-19 outbreak saw the swift closure of restaurants across the United States. As they shut down, workers were laid off and staffing was slashed dramatically. “When it first started, back when we went to shut down, everybody got laid off,” said Dave Zitko, manager at Five Star Burgers in Clayton. “A lot of people didn’t want to come back to work for various reasons… unemployment was paying out a lot of money, people were afraid to come back to work because they didn’t want to get sick, and they didn’t want to spread the virus.” Restaurants that reopened did so slowly and cautiously with varying degrees of success. Curbside pickups and to-go deliveries replaced indoor dining, while business all but vanished. “We pretty much stopped in store services,”

8 NEWS

said Kevin Crews, store manager of Crushed Red in Clayton. “Everything was to go… everything was really curbside when it first broke out. We were down to really a bare-bones staff, trying to save money to keep the business going.” However, business began to return as the vaccine rollout coupled with a sharp decrease in new Covid cases come spring of 2021 bolstered the demand for indoor dining. Gabby Durham, manager at the Kingside Diner in Clayton, commented on the rapid increase in customers around the time vaccines became available. “As soon as the vaccines started coming out and more people got vaccinated, our business picked up quite a bit,” said Durham. “Guests would be like, ‘this is finally my first time eating in a restaurant since Covid started’. We definitely saw a flux of people around then.” While restaurants began to see an increase in business, staffing started to decline. “As far as staffing goes, I think people in this country have found what real balance is like, and they’ve learned they don’t need or they

don’t want a second job, or they want to just get out of the restaurant or hospitality industry altogether,” said Zitko. “They look for something else that suits their lifestyle better, where they have more time off, they can take time off, take vacation whenever they want. That sort of thing.” As workers leave the industry, those who remain are forced to take on the extra load. “You work a lot when you lose people… there’s some parts of the year where I know I’m going to be working more or doing more things that normally I don’t have to do,” said Zitko. “We didn’t notice any staffing issues until more recently,” explained Durham, at Kingside. “But we’ve definitely taken a hit there. We’ve had employees leave, they’ve changed our hours, shut us down days just because we didn’t have enough people to do it. Some of the cooks are working like 60, 70 hour work weeks.” This decline in workers has been felt only recently for many businesses, as the fresh increase in customers made staff shortages palpable. “Just about three weeks ago, we started closing on Mondays. So now we only do six

days a week instead of seven,” said Durham. “We’ve started putting out a lot of ads recently, so we’re kind of just waiting on that.” Even new applicants are unreliable, explained Durham. “We noticed when we would try and hire during the phase of unemployment, a lot of people would try and just get the interview, so they could put in their unemployment to claim money. They would say they interviewed at Kingside, but just didn’t get the job. They were just coming in for the interview.” Some businesses have labored to staff less than others. Crushed Red is back to full employment, and has not struggled to find workers. Many are high school workers, meaning scheduling can be difficult. “We have a lot of high school kid workers, so we have to maneuver around. But no real problems,” explained Crews. “But no real problems. Minimal frustrations.” While business remains high despite the Delta variant and the new county-wide mask mandate, the new issue of staff scarcity leaves restaurants still feeling the reverberations of the pandemic almost two years out.

The interior of 5-Star Burgers, located on Maryland Ave., just down the hill from Crushed Red.

The front entrance to Kingside Diner in downtown Clayton.

SHANE LAGESSE, EDITOR IN CHIEF ALEX SLEN, SECTION EDITOR RUBY NADIN, COPY EDITOR ALISON BOOTH, REPORTER

NEWS 9

W E N G

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JOE MILLIANO by Vivian Chen

hen he was in first grade, Joe Milliano took his first ever tap dancing class. This hobby would later lead to some of his first experiences with teaching. “In the spring semester of my freshman year of college, I was teaching a high school level tap class. I was one year removed from the students that I was teaching,” he said. “I was bad at it. I didn’t know how to command a room and make sure that everyone was on task and learning and working together. The whole experience was a disaster.” Instead of being discouraged, Milliano used this experience to motivate himself to improve his teaching. However, as a physics and math major, he still had a long way to go before discovering that teaching was what he really wanted to do. “The reason teaching was even on my mind

is because I would help out a lot of my friends who had to take a required physics class. They would be complaining about having to take the class while I’m sitting there like, ‘No, this stuff is so cool!’ And I loved helping them realize, ‘Oh wait, this is kinda cool,’” said Milliano. After his junior year of college, Milliano did a summer internship with the Department of Energy. “I was working with nuclear fusion in San Diego, and I absolutely loved the big picture of what the lab was doing and talking about the big projects that were there,” said Milliano. However, Milliano soon realized that working in the industry was not for him. “[It] just drained me. I was sitting behind a computer, running code, analyzing data in this small windowless basement office. And there was very little interpersonal interaction,” said

Milliano. “That experience taught me that while I love what’s happening [in the industry], I don’t think the day-to-day work is for me. Ultimately while I love physics and math, I consider myself much more of a community builder than anything else. Teaching lies right at the intersection of those interests. .. Teaching is a communal experience between you and your students. You are asking them the questions. They are the ones doing the thinking, they’re communicating with each other to express their ideas,” said Milliano. “But in that, there’s a performance aspect to how you have the students think about things in a certain way. There’s some improvisation too, [like if] they shoot back an idea that’s different than what was expected, but still really good and worth exploring.” For Milliano, one of the most gratifying parts of teaching is watching his students grow. “I had a student who I’ve taught for the past two years. When he joined my class, he was on a list from the teacher who taught the class before me, saying that I should tell him to drop AP Physics 1,” said Milliano. “I saw that list and said, ‘This is nonsense.’ If someone wants to sign up for a challenge, we should support them in that challenge. I don’t know enough about this kid to say one way or another about what their motivation is going to be, so I let him take the class ... He was not paying a whole lot of attention in class and would sort of just get up and walk around sometimes. But I continued to develop a relationship with him, continued to help him stay focused on his studies and really understand the format of the course, where we learn through doing things together, and through community, and through discussion.” That student’s growth resulted in him taking AP Physics 2. “He did really well, in spite of the expectations that had been set up for him. To watch that growth in his learning and his confidence in his abilities over two years was one of my pride points in teaching, for sure,” said Milliano. As a teacher, Milliano values allowing students to take control of their own learning. Instead of listening to lectures for hours on end, he encourages them to get out into the classroom and make their own meaning of the content. “How would I define success in teaching? You would have to talk with the students that I’ve taught,” said Milliano. “If they have felt supported, if they have felt cared for, if they have felt academically challenged to the point where they are ready to take on future challenges and if they feel empowered to embrace whatever the future holds for them, that would be my measure of success.”

DOROTEA LECHKOVA by Isabella Bamnolker

“S

ometimes, students are nervous to speak a different language correctly. I want them to feel comfortable and I want them to feel like they can take intellectual risks in my classroom” said Dorotea Lechkova. Dr. Lechkova plans to teach Spanish I and Honors Advanced Spanish II. Having immigrated to St. Louis from Bulgaria at a young age, she began to study Spanish in middle school and took Spanish classes at Parkway North High School. Then having studied Spanish in college, she lived in Madrid for a year and did research in Mexico City. “I just really really loved it. I love traveling. I love different cultures. I love meeting different people, and that’s how I ended up teaching Spanish,” said Dr. Lechkova. Lechkova’s experiences with Spanish made her passionate about exploring the world, getting to know communities and getting to appreciate the richness of diversity. She hopes to extend those experiences and values to her students. “Language is just one piece, but then seeing how different people live, how they experience everyday life and the world around them, It gives you a different perspective on everything. I think ultimately that makes us richer individuals that are also more aware, inclusive and better citizens,” said Dr. Lechkova. With the pandemic introducing new opportunities with technology. Whether it’s a Kahoot or Quizzizz, Lechkova wants to engage students through interactive games, as well as the possibility of a guest speaker. “I had a friend of mine, who talked about the education systems in Mexico and Spain, visit my class last year (over Zoom). And it was it was a great way for students to learn about the broader community and be able to interact with a native speaker,” said Lechkova. “This year, I want to focus on getting more real life experiences for the students, and coming up with projects that will let them explore their interests

and learn more about the Spanish-speaking world.” Dr. Lechkova is interested in getting involved with an international club and the Spanish club. Outside of school, she enjoys being in an international environment, reading, traveling and listening to music. One show she enjoys is a Netflix series called Taco Chronicles, a multi-episode exploration of all the varieties of tacos.

In Dr. Lechkova’s classroom, student opinions matter. Through listening to music from the Spanish-speaking world, interacting with speakers from different parts of the world and sharing stories with classmates, Dr. Lechkova wants to know her students and wants them to feel comfortable sharing their opinions and stories. But most importantly, she wants them to have fun while learning a new language.

SPENCER HOLLENBACH by Alex Cohen

“I

f you’re a teacher, it’s always good to be a student,” said incoming CHS math teacher Spencer Hollenbach. This well defines his positive, engaged style of teaching. Hollenbach attended the University of Missouri and obtained an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA. Hollenbach spent several years working as an engineer with a heating company called Watlow before changing careers and becoming a teacher. He spent a year as a math intervention specialist in the Parkway School District before being hired in Clayton. Hollenbach is a familiar face to most Clayton students as he previously spent five years teaching eighth grade math at Wydown Middle School on teams 8 West and 7/8. Hollenbach found his favorite part of engineering to be working with people and decided to make the switch to teaching to help students learn and grow. He values a team approach to the classroom, so that students are more engaged in their learning. He learned this team approach from his previous career. “When I work with students, I try to look at it as we’re a community and we’re all just trying to learn together and grow together,” said Hollenbach. “He’s wicked smart, super efficient, and always thinking of ways things could be done differently. Even things we did well. He challenged us, pushed us to grow,” said WMS Social Studies teacher Aimee Beeson, a former colleague of Hollenbach. He loves to have complex discussions about logic, reasoning and truth with his classes, on top of the algebra and geometry that he teaches. Despite struggling with the subject in middle

and early high school, Hollenbach has a strong love for math. “I always kind of enjoyed the class because it has a kind of grounding and truth, which I think is special,” said Hollenbach. This love for the subject and team approach is certainly noticed by his students. “If he knew I wasn’t doing my best work, he got on me about it and really pushed me to do my best. He was really engaged with the students and wanted the best for them,” said CHS sophomore Stella Bishop. Much of Hollenbach’s focus as a teacher is on creating deep and meaningful relationships with his students, both inside and outside of the classroom. “Connecting with his students was what I saw him doing most of the time. He’d be in the halls, chatting with students about any number of things - their baseball game, or the spring musical, their weekends, whatever. And he listened - and remembered - and laughed,” said Beeson. This year he will be coaching the Ultimate Frisbee team and hopes to become involved with more clubs including math and chess club. When asked what he would miss about Wydown, Hollenbach affectionately said, “A lot. I loved teaching eighth grade, it’s such a great age. I also loved my team and the math department.” Wydown and 8 West will miss him as well. “He really liked them and it was obvious. I really believe that Mr. Hollenbach simply thinks middle schoolers are super cool and impressive,” said Beeson. However, Hollenbach wants to grow both

his professional experience and his ability to connect with students of various ages. He is particularly excited to “loop up” with many of his students from last school year as he is teaching three sections of freshman College Prep Geometry classes this year. With the addition of a section of College Prep Algebra II and one of Algebra III, Hollenbach will teach students of all grade levels at CHS. “I’m really excited to have students I’ve had before and to see how people change over time and hopefully deepen those relationships,” said Hollenbach. Students appreciate his focus on building relationships. “He always had a positive attitude and was really energetic. I was always super excited for his class. He’s very caring,” said Bishop. His room on 8 West always had a few students inside at lunchtime, whether for help with a math assignment or just someone to talk to. “There’s definitely a difference that students and teachers feel from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. It’s because you’ve developed a relationship over the year. You’ve come along in not just knowing the material but you’ve done that, together, and that’s really special,” said Hollenbach. In addition to teaching and Ultimate Frisbee coaching, Hollenbach enjoys gardening, reading non-fiction books, running and spending time with his black lab mix, Betty. “In fact, I almost bought black lab pajamas yesterday, just because I saw them at the grocery store,” said Hollenbach. His positive energy and emphasis on building relationships with students will certainly make him an asset to the CHS math department.

NOAH PETTI by Enoch Lai

oah Petti, incoming Band Director and Percussion Specialist, is a St. Louis native returning to teach students from both Wydown Middle School and Clayton School. Having been a student teacher at Clayton two years ago, Noah Petti is now ready to take on a new and exciting challenge teaching students here at Clayton. His journey as a musician, like many others, started in middle school (but in an unexpected way). “When I was in fifth grade, [I was presented with] all the electives you can take in middle school, and on [an] elective it didn’t say concert band; it just said band. Being a fifth grader I thought that meant rock band because I wanted to play the guitar. I wanted to be a rock band, so I said yes, I will do band. Turns out it was Concert Band so I did the next best thing [and] I became a drummer,” said Petti. With the intention of being a guitarist in a rock band, Petti became a percussionist whose passion for music blossomed year after year after year. “I kind of just realized that music was my passion; I couldn’t live without it. I tried dropping it in high school and kind of panicked, and I ended up putting it back on my schedule, taking physics off, and making sure that [music] was part of my life.” According to Petti, any piece or style of music could mean any number of things to different people. Aside from a passion, Petti sees music as something much more than that. “For me, I think music is a reflection of yourself and your emotions. I think that it’s just an evocative way to express yourself, and the music you listen to and how you respond to it is a reflection of yourself,” said Petti. Eventually, music became a permanent part of Petti’s life after he became a music teacher. He started first as a student teacher here in Clayton, before transitioning to a full time Assistant Band Director at the Mount Vernon School District.

Having been a student teacher at Clayton puts Petti in a unique position in the sense that he’s met many of the students here already. Teaching at Clayton was also a transformative experience for him as well. “As a student teacher, I definitely learned how to manage my time in front of a very high achieving group. Clayton is one of the highest achieving schools that I’ve ever been fortunate enough to conduct in front of. That really pushed me as an educator to bring more advanced concepts to the table, to think about how I’m going to develop these kids, and diversify my instruction to make sure that those who are far and above are still growing, and [making sure] that the people who need some help are getting the help they need.” Petti describes his teaching style as a little bit

more relaxed, but he still has high expectations for his students and is really big on making sure that each student is having their needs met, describing that as one of his biggest philosophies. To Petti, this is also one of the defining characteristics of a teacher. “I think that teachers aren’t just presenters of information. We’re not just professors of knowledge. We’re trying to make sure that not just from an educational academic standpoint, but from an emotional, social, and mental standpoint, that you guys are being provided for and that your needs are being met. That really means doing whatever we can, [and being in] whatever frame of mind we need to be in, to make sure that we’re keeping the students first.”

SOPHIE BROWNING by Emma Baum

usic has always been a presence in Sophie Browning’s life, but it wasn’t until middle school that she discovered her love of the clarinet. “With no great logic or reasoning, I was like, ‘Clarinet, that looks like a fun word’. I’m going to play the clarinet.’” Over 10 years later, Browning’s passion for music is still evident: she has recently joined the Clayton Band Program as the woodwind specialist. Browning is returning to the St. Louis area after completing a master’s program in clarinet

performance at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. She attended college across the river at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville, earning bachelor’s degrees in music education and clarinet performance. Growing up, Browning was a student at Ritenour School District, just five miles north of where she works now. The experiences she had in her high school band program still influence her teaching today. “For me, the great things were the relationships that I could build within the band community. We also had a lot of different performance experiences, which I think is really cool,” Browning said. Browning’s dedication to building a community within the band program is evident in the work she did for her students last year. While completing her masters degree in Ohio, Browning took part in an assistantship at All Saints Catholic School, where she taught band to students in fourth through eighth grade. Last spring, she wanted to put together a concert for her students, most of whom had not performed for anyone in a year and a half, and some of whom had never experienced performing for a group before.

“I asked the students, ‘Okay, if we did a concert, how would you want to do it?’. And I helped them, but they basically planned the concert, so we did an outside movie music concert… And that day, it was freezing, and very windy, but the entire school showed up, and we played the whole concert.” Throughout the challenges of the last year and a half, Browning has emphasized the importance of providing both a good experience for her students musically and mentally. She is no stranger to the toll some of the more stressful parts of being a musician can take. ”As a musician, I’ve really struggled with performance anxiety…Now I have two degrees in performance, which people were telling me were never going to happen… This is something a lot of people deal with and don’t know how to get over, and for me that was the biggest feat because that was what everyone was always telling me was keeping me from getting degrees,” Browning said. Now that Browning is returning to the band room as a teacher, she is excited to see what opportunities lie in the future for her musicians. One of four new band directors in the last year, Browning is part of a new era in the Clayton Band Program, and she is ready to lead the way to whatever is next for the ensembles. “I always just want to keep building a program of, what’s next? Like, we’ve achieved this goal, okay, what’s next?” Browning said. Browning believes that these goals are only worth it, though, if her students take something out of the experience beyond the ability to play music. “That’s number one for me, providing all of the students with fruitful and differentiated experiences that will help them not only as musicians, but as people in general.” Browning may have just started her time at Clayton, but she is already in tune with how to help her students thrive.

CURTIS JAMES by Kaia Mills-Lee

e returns! Curtis James, Clayton’s newest math teacher, taught at CHS from 1998 to 2008 and is returning this year after teaching at Triad High School in Illinois. James, having two sons who would graduate from Triad in 2020, made the decision to turn his 60-mile daily commute to just a six-minute commute from his home when his sons entered grade school. However, with his sons having graduated last year, James no longer has any bounds to the district. During his initial years at CHS in the early 2000s, James worked alongside many of Clayton’s beloved math teachers: Mrs. Dobbert, Mr. Kohmetscher, Mrs. Long, Mr. Moody, and Mr. Kleinberg (who was actually James’ student teacher back in the day). “[Mr. Kohmetscher and Mr. Moody] told me they were retiring and asked if I would apply so I checked it out,” James said when asked about returning to teach at Clayton. “I weighed the pros and cons of going back to driving again, and for retirement and everything, it made a lot

of sense.” While returning to Clayton had its appeals because James was already familiar with a lot of the staff and because it benefitted his retirement plans, there had also always been something about the Clayton atmosphere that captivated James. “I think the Clayton culture has a lot of critical thinking. It’s not just, ‘sit here and follow my directions and do this.’ I saw a lot of, ‘What do you think about this? Where are we going with this?’ And so I already knew it was a great environment,” James said. Like many of CHS’s other teachers, James strives to engage the students in his classes - Algebra I, College Prep Precalculus, and Honors Geometry - while also incorporating math concepts. Especially with the new block schedule, James has been brainstorming new ways to keep students interested, whether that be through websites like Desmos, or straying a bit from the typical lesson plan. “If you tell me you’re kind of interested in a

topic, I’ll try to see if I can come up with where the math fits in,” James said. “A lot of people are interested in wanting to own their own business type of thing, so in my Algebra I class, I have a couple chapters planned where, as part of the math, we’ll learn a little bit about some basic business principles and things like that.” James, having switched career focuses in college, understands the importance of introducing students to a variety of subjects so they can discover what they enjoy most. In college at Mizzou, James had initially focused on programming, staying away from education so he could “make tons of money.” However, even in high school, James always found that other students would come to him for help with their math work, and helping his peers with their work always left James with a sense of satisfaction that he couldn’t find anywhere else. And so, when discussing his entrance to college, James said, “I was sitting there, learning how to program and not enjoying it. And then I realized I really, probably, should be a teacher, and all of a sudden, I was enjoying college a lot more. I think it was meant to be.” While teaching is truly James’s passion, he has many other unique interests. James finds serious enjoyment in hiking and camping, appreciates the occasional Zelda video game, is surprisingly good at juggling, has the skills to potentially run his own dairy farm and maybe spends a little too much time on Reddit searching up (or submitting) some AP Calc info. Nonetheless, James’s most essential attribute is his value of family and community both in his own home and the classroom. At his old school, James had both of his twin sons in his calculus class their senior year along with many of their friends he’d watched grow up. However, at the end of their senior year when Covid hit, both he and the students felt as if they were missing out on so much. “Both my sons had me as a teacher and we get along very well so it was a good experience. And their friends, a lot of them were kids I’d known since they were little. We’d either gone to church, maybe in scouts, or the baseball team. So that was just kind of amazing. There was just this connection, this relationship that teachers try to foster with the students. But then we went to Zoom,” James said. “On my last day, I tried to give a spiel, and I just totally lost it. Tears just flowing, and I had to log off. It was very emotional.” James’ value of his students over all else shines through in the relationships he builds with them, and is something he plans to bring to CHS. When sharing a story about a previous student and their opinion about his class, James said, “They just said something to the effect of, ‘Oh, you know what I like about Mr. James’ class is that you can just be yourself in there and you don’t have to worry about anything. You know, just be yourself and he’s all good with it.’”

MELISSA GOOLETT by Ivy Reed

“I

’ve always had an innate desire for learning,” said new CHS English teacher Melissa Goodlett. “That’s off the bat, even when I was dealing with dyslexia.” Despite her family’s insistence and her passion for playing school with her siblings since the age of three, Goodlett didn’t always know that teaching would be her future. Early in her education, she struggled with an undiagnosed reading disorder that was misrecognized by her parents and teachers as lack of effort. “It took one teacher to finally get to the crux of the issue and test me and realize that, oh, it’s not that she doesn’t know how to read, it’s just her way of understanding it,” said Goodlett. “So they diagnosed me with dyslexia, and I was able to overcome it through the caring support

of teachers. And so by the third grade, I was carrying around dictionaries, entering contests, essays.” Goodlett, who now favors John Donne poetry and authors like Toni Morrison, remembers becoming a voracious reader as a student. “A book is the avenue to a new world,” she said. “It really is. It really takes you somewhere else. My family would say, oh she’s reading again, she’s not here. Her body is physically here, but she’s off. And I really was, I was off on another trip, another world, another place. Goodlett’s experience in elementary school equipped her with not only a love of reading, but also an acutely empathetic approach to students who are struggling in her classroom. “Usually I can tell when a student is deflect-

ing, and I know this because I was that kid,” said Goodlett. “So it really makes me take the time out to get to understand what’s driving the behavior.” Prior to arriving at Clayton, Goodlett’s career has been shaped by experiences spanning multiple fields, school districts, countries and even Fortune 500 companies when she worked in business after returning from Germany. The youngest of five children, she was born and raised in Overland and graduated from the Normandy School District. Her education and family took her to Stillman College in Alabama for her undergraduate degree, Germany for five years after getting married, and Webster University and Fontbonne University for master’s degrees back in St. Louis. She is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership at Maryville University. Not only has Goodlett collected multiple degrees from universities across St. Louis, but she has also experienced teaching in a diverse range of school districts in the city and county. Her view of education has been shaped by teaching in the Hazelwood and Mehlville school districts, as well as St. Louis Public Schools, before arriving at Clayton. “I have noticed that certain school districts have less resources than others. I will say that in teaching a diverse group of students, I can honestly say that most students want to learn, even students that have traditionally been underserved, for example, no doubt about it, the St. Louis Public School District,” she said. Goodlett observed that students lose motivation when they don’t have adequate support at home or in school. “I wanted to be the teacher to change that,” she said of her experience teaching in under-resourced schools, which also helped form her opinions on the importance of diverse authors in the classroom. “Especially for students in marginalized communities, if you foster the love of books, early on, that could defeat some of what they’re exposed to on an everyday basis. That could be their catalyst to dream and hope and grow so yeah, exposure to diverse perspectives is very important in a English class,” she said. Goodlett’s career at Clayton began by chance three years ago, when she noticed a School District of Clayton booth at a national educator’s conference in New Orleans. Now finally starting her first year in the district, she will be teaching College Prep English IV and American Literature. Goodlett, who believes strongly in collaborative learning and an emphasis on facilitation rather than instruction, is looking forward to bringing her philosophy of teaching into new classrooms. In the years to come, she hopes to inspire students “to go out and go forth and just be the great people that I know they already are.”

KAMILLE CHAVARIN by Ruby Nadian

“I

always loved art as a kid. I was always the kid drawing in my free time and I loved art class,” said Kamille Chavarin, one of the new art teachers at CHS. As a child, Chavarin was always very creative. Growing up in St. Louis, Chavarin spent countless days at the art museum and took art classes at COCA. She also grew up in a creative household. “My grandma was a seamstress, so she made me clothes,” Chavarin said. “I could show her a picture and she could make a dress without needing a pattern or anything.” Chavarin’s grandmother taught her a lot about expressing herself. “She taught me a lot about sewing and drawing, she would just sit and draw with me. And that was when I was around 3-years-old, she would sit with me all day and we would just draw together. I always loved it.” After working in the Hazelwood School District for 12 years, Chavarin is excited for the new opportunities that the Clayton district has to offer. “There are so many levels of art here, and then AP art,” Chavarin said. “It made me really excited to teach somewhere where the students were able to have all of those different experiences as they go through the program, and where they are really prepared for an art school or a college-level art program by the time they graduate.” Chavarin didn’t always see herself as an art teacher. She initially saw herself majoring in math or going to law school. However, after she started attending SLU, she realized just how passionate she was about art. “I took an art class, and as soon as I started taking that class I was like, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I should be doing art all the time. So I decided to major in art.” Along with majoring in art at SLU, Chavarin went on to get her master’s degree in art history at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. Chavarin made the transition to teaching after taking an education class. She was able to observe middle school students and start working with them. For Chavarin, this became confirmation of her passion for teaching as well as art.

“It was an after-school mentoring program where we were just working with kids. As soon as I started doing that, it really just felt like everything kind of fell into place. It was like, oh, I’m going to teach. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing,” Chavarin said. In addition to teaching at Hazelwood, Chavarin has spent the last five summers working with St. Louis Artworks. This program is aimed at teens and teaches them life and communication skills using art. The students work with artists who help them go through the process of creating a commissioned piece of art. This experience gave Chavarin a look into the business side of art. “Working with that program specifically has really made me think about who your audience is,” Chavarin said. “There are paintings and murals all over town that that program has

done with kids. It’s the idea of actually making public art, knowing who’s seeing it and what that means to them.” Chavarin takes a lot of inspiration from American painter Kehinde Wiley, who is most well known for portraits featuring African Americans in the style of old European paintings. “He is really changing the way that art is viewed in a museum, and how Black and brown people are shown in art. I got to meet him when he came to the St. Louis Art Museum, which was really exciting.” This year, Chavarin will be teaching Art 1, Art 2, Art 3, Digital Photography and Sculpture. Her experience with drawing, painting and printmaking will help provide CHS art students with new skills and help challenge them this year.

ANNA HORMBERG by Kirby Miller

nna Hormberg’s focus on the subject of history stirred well before she was a teenager. “It started for me when I was honestly in the fifth grade,” Hormberg said. “I was fascinated just of people’s different experiences in the past. History helped me have a better understanding of myself and the time and place that I lived in.” Hormberg also likes seeing the physical experience of the subject while in the classroom, even when she’s not a student. “I hope that history can do that for other students as well,” Hormberg said. “I find it really fascinating to learn about people and experiences that are really different from my own...History is a place to gain better understanding and empathy for people,” Hormberg said. “I’m really passionate about making sure that all students can feel that connection, or can

explore something completely different.” Her decision to pursue her career in teaching was defined by her intense interest in the subject matter. “My love of history was definitely a driving force,” said Hormberg. “I had so many teachers along the way who really empowered me and made me reach further than I thought I could do, and I want it to do that for other kids and have an impact on people’s lives.” Hormberg specifically enjoys working with young adults and teenagers. “I much prefer working with young adults and teenagers compared to working with adults,” she said. Hormberg has pursued her teaching career for seven years, attending two universities in Missouri to qualify. “For undergrad I went to Mizzou, where I

majored in education and minored in history,” she explained. “Then, I also received my master’s degree in secondary education from UMSL (University of Missouri-St. Louis).” For the last six years, Hormberg taught at Mehlville High School in South County. “I really loved the kids and the students that I worked with there,” said Hormberg Outside of teaching history, she was the JV girls basketball coach and sponsored the Social Justice Club. Making a transition to switch schools and locations can be difficult for some teachers. “I really enjoyed connecting with students who had similar interests as my own,” Hormberg said, “and I’m definitely going to miss some of my students.” Even though Hormberg still feels that way, she’s grateful to be part of Clayton and feel more welcome inside the community. “Clayton has a really wonderful school district. I feel like it’s a part of my community,” she said, “I live close to Clayton, and so I want to work in my own community, as well as a district that has high expectations and standards for all students and teachers, and I really like that environment.” Another reason Hormberg transitioned to the next part of her teaching career in Clayton is because she happens to be friends with Katelyn Long, a math teacher and assistant coach for CHS swimming and diving. “She loves Clayton and is a really good seller on it,” Hormberg said. Outside of the classroom and the school day, she spends most of her free time going crazy about food. “Cooking is a passion of mine,” Hormberg said, “I love to cook, I love to try new recipes, buy cookbooks, try new foods from different places, and I love to go out to eat as well.” When the Covid-19 pandemic started spreading and compelled us to stay inside, Hormberg took the opportunity to be more active. Running, swimming, and reading were her three parts of being active in her free time. “I would have never said that I was a runner before the pandemic,” she explained, “but I started running in the pandemic, and I really enjoyed that as well.”

DAWN WEBER by Shane LaGesse

rowing up, Dawn Weber never thought much about teaching. “I knew I wanted to do something with art, and something in the creative field,” said Weber. “I never really thought about teaching when I was a kid.” After graduating from high school at Ursuline Academy in St. Louis, Weber pursued a degree in fine arts and graphic design from Missouri State University. It wasn’t until about six years into her career as a graphic designer when she realized it might not be for her. “About six years into being a graphic designer, I went in and observed a friend who was teaching and he let me get up and help around, and interact with the students. That’s when I realized that I was in the wrong place,” said Weber. Soon after, she began her Master’s in education at Lindenwood, which she finished in 2009. Her parents weren’t surprised. “Oddly enough, when I told my parents I was going back to school, they were like, ‘yeah, of course, that’s what you were meant to do’.” said Weber. “But nobody filled me in on that fact. They just saw that I like to learn new things, and that I also want to share what I’ve been learning.” Clayton students who took the Video Lab or coding classes in middle school may remember Weber from Wydown, where she taught for eight years. One of her favorite parts of teaching those courses was the outlet they became for her students. “You don’t think of the computer science and coding classes as being a creative outlet. It’s not drawing, it’s not painting. But they are

all creating original works. Every time they do it, just like you could create original poems in your papers, it was just another outlet to see what they can come up with and create.” Now in charge of Educational Technology at CHS (and coach of the JV field hockey team), Weber is looking forward to the change. “I wanted to go into more of a learning position where I work with the different departments and their curriculum writing, and how they can keep enhancing and offering more options and choices for students to be able to interact with our classes,” said Weber. “I’m always a student, I will always be learning new stuff. And I feel that as educators, we all kind of fall into that bucket. So helping us to expand and research and see what great things are out there can help the students be better prepared for what might get thrown at them.”

Weber plans to continue some of what she focused on at the middle school at CHS, and eagerly jumps into testing new ideas with student learning. “It’s really about the choices— students being able to share their individual choice and voice in their projects and how they learn. That was one of my big focuses over at Wydown: working with students in the different styles of how they can learn… it’s not a one size fits all kind of thing.” Dawn Weber moves from middle to high school, and from one room to an entire building, with great anticipation. “I realized, when this opportunity came up, that I’d get to help students, and help teachers. It’s like my classroom just got 600 times bigger.”

CHAD HARMON by Ella Cuneo

rt inspiration can come from anything, anywhere, anytime. New Clayton High School art teacher Chad Harmon grew up watching his dad fiddle with his chess board while debating his next move against the Atari. Stationed in Germany, unable to speak foreign languages, Harmon’s father took to chess to entertain himself during his time off. Harmon was entranced by the five inch pieces and held to his early memories years later. “I ended up getting the set he had and I painted it up. But then I was like, ‘ehh I don’t

really like this.’ There were just certain things about it that I wanted to change. So I said, ‘Well why don’t I just make one?’” said Harmon. While that’s one of Harmon’s pieces that stands out to him, he often does not get too attached to his work. He likes to look at art as a learning experience. Harmon started his creative journey when he was in a band during his younger years. They played rock tunes and often worked towards what he called his ‘aesthetic goal.’ He found challenges working with some of his bandmates because “if somebody is not in it the same way,

you don;t get that experience [of working in tandem]. You’re not hitting it in time.” Harmon’s friend’s father was an artist and while looking at some of the work, he was fascinated. He decided to take an art class at a junior college and discovered his passion for the fine arts. “I drew when I was a kid, but then somebody drew better than me and I thought I couldn’t practice. So I was 22 years old and this made complete sense. I didn’t need anyone else to do it. Don’t get me wrong- I like to work with other people- but I didn’t have to have them, it wasn’t mandatory for the aesthetic experience,” said Harmon. As he became more involved in the art, he began to leave his previous conceptions of creativity behind and explore what it meant to him. “So, when I realized that [art] was something I could do, one of the first things I wanted to do is share with other people that you don’t have to be good to become good,” said Harmon. “You can build on that skill, just like you could hit a better baseball.” Harmon attended undergraduate school at Missouri State and attended graduate school at the University of South Florida to be able to show students that art can be what you make of it. In his free time, Harmon has attempted a variety of art projects, most involving paint, his preferred medium. He even tried to create a 33-foot drawing, and while he didn’t finish the project loving the way it turned out, he ended up creating smaller pieces from the large drawing. “I think there are pieces for me that represent milestones in terms of thinking process. Like, I looked at something and went, I may have spent three weeks on that but I learned a ton of stuff about what I was trying to do.” Harmon now plans to continue his artistry and teaching career teaching AP Art and Design, Sculpture 1, Art 1, Art 4, and Photo 1 at CHS. While working at Clayton, Harmon wants to help his students “discover a way to express themselves, visually, that they didn’t have before. Just go for it. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.”

A Bookstore for the Community The Novel Neighbor, a bookstore in Webster, is a place to find books, art and a caring community

out for baby showers or birthdays. So, there is always something going on,” said Zoe, who has been working at The Novel Neighbor for about two years. Some of the events include book-themed birthday parties for kids, book clubs ranging in ages and genres and author visits. The bookstore has a tradition where the authors who visit decorate a red wooden block with black pen. Each of the blocks also has a key which the owner of the store recycled. The bookstore also offers a wide range of books and fun games. Their merchandise ranges from romance novels to tarot cards to mental health books. They even have a full stand dedicated to books about St. Louis. Part of what makes The Novel Neighbor so unique is the community that surrounds it. The bookstore has regulars who make it part of their weekly routine to visit. “It’s always fun seeing the regulars every week,” said Zoe. “I’ve made friends, even during the pandemic, through our book clubs and things like that.” The community aspect extends to the virtual world as well!

The local art prints, St. Louis book stand and other bookshelves in the back of The Novel Neighbor.

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY ELLA CUNEO

s you walk into the Novel Neighbor, a colorful community feeling surrounds you. Posters created by local artists, bookshelves with staff-picked recommendations and red wooden blocks with black ink doodles and metal keys coat the upper half of the walls. The Novel Neighbor, started by Holland Saltsman, is a small local bookstore located in Webster Groves, St. Louis. The bookstore is known for its prominence in the surrounding community as well as its support for local artists. The Novel Neighbor offers opportunities and exposure for artists and local businesses. The bookstore fills its space with local goods including handmade candles, soaps, cookies and chocolate, stickers, jewelry and fine art prints. Some artists give their works and receive a percentage of the profit in return, while sometimes the bookstore buys the goods from others and resells them. Not only does the bookstore provide for local artists but they also serve the community in other ways. The bookstore has their own non-

22 REVIEW

profit organization called The Noble Neighbor, which donates books for children in less fortunate school districts. They spend about $2,500 to schedule an author visit and to give each kid a free book at the schools they visit. You can donate on thenobleneighbor.org. The Novel Neighbor also provides a variety of experiences for the community. “We do a lot of author events, book clubs, we also do industry wide events such as romance bookstore day, independent bookstore days which are every April. We also have the event space, you can rent that

Looking into the front desk area at the Novel Neighbor, with the red blocks created by authors hanging in the background.

Just like many places, The Novel Neighbor also had its fair share of struggles during the pandemic. In order to combat this, they invented their “mystery boxes.” Customers can put in their order on their website. When you order a “mystery box,” you tell the store about what genres or books you like, then the employees put together a box of books and other fun merchandise. The sizes and prices range from $35 to $150. The Novel Neighbor’s comfortable and friendly environment is a go-to place for local

St. Louisans and a touristy spot for curious passing travelers from all around the country. For tourists and new customers, The Novel Neighbor is sure to turn a head or two. Featured in The Wall Street Journal for their famous “mystery boxes” and boasting thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok, The Novel Neighbor is bringing fame and familiarity to its name. Zoe said, “We get people who come in here from other states, that are like, ‘Oh I was just driving through, I saw you on Tiktok and I just

had to come over here to see your store!’” With some videos on social media reaching hundreds of thousands of views, The Novel Neighbor can sell up to 250 of the same books, “in just one day!” If you are in need of a new book, a fun present, a piece of artwork, or just a trip out for the day, head to The Novel Neighbor for an uplifting community experience.

A comfortable seating area in the back of The Novel Neighbor.

CHARLIE MEYERS, AVIE MALLON, IVY SLEN, REPORTERS ELLA CUNEO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF REVIEW 23

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