Kalee Lipovsky, who did her student teaching at Hastings High School 17 years ago with Linda Shaw and Denise Teetor, filled Teetor’s position of English Language teacher this year.
Teetor retired after the 2017-2018 school year, and Lipovsky saw it as an opportunity to relocate from Sandy Creek.
“English language learner classes involve teaching students that are not very familiar with the English language,” said Lipovsky, who taught Spanish at Sandy Creek High School for 16 years.
Sandy Creek has a graduating class of 30 compared to Hastings’ graduating class of 288 students.
“I was expecting the halls to be a lot more crowded; Hastings has a big student body,” said Lipovsky.
Another major difference between Sandy Creek and Hastings is the staff count.
“It’s just been fun to get to know everyone, because I feel like I’m still passing by staff members today that I have yet to meet,” said Lipovsky.
Lipovsky found the diversity of students at Hastings was amazing with “different personalities and interests, and so many different organizations that we didn’t have at Sandy Creek.”
Some organizations that Hastings High has that Sandy Creek High doesn’t are DECA, Skills USA, and many smaller interest-based clubs such as Gender Sexuality Alliance, Books and Bagels, Anime Club etc.
In respects to the first day of school, Lipovsky thought it went well.
“I was lucky to have a lot of in-service days that allowed me to meet the staff and prepare my classroom.” She really liked that her students were “eager to learn and to acquire the language,”said Lipovsky.
In five years, Lipovsky still sees herself working at HHS, especially since she has a family farm that “isn’t going anywhere.” That does mean that she has a 27-mile drive to work, but she says that she “enjoys drinking coffee and listening to an audiobook on the drive up.”
When she’s not at school, Lipovsky loves spending time with her family.
“As of right now I am not involved in any activities except for keeping track of my four kids,” said Lipovsky.
“My kids are at an age now that I get to watch a lot of their activities and when we’re at home we play cards,” said Lipovsky. Lipovsky also loves to garden. She describes her garden as “obnoxiously huge.”
It seems that in the short time she has been here at HHS, she is already starting to pick up on a few traditions.
“It’s always a great day to be a TIGER,” says Lipovsky.
