Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
From left: Morgan Lambert, Hannah Rae Joseph, Bill Whitehead, Jennifer Lowe, Lee Chumbley, Eric Steinert, and Danelle Cash.
For seven of the teachers and staff at Spain Park High School, caring for their high schoolers takes on a different meaning because they are also former Jaguars.
Three Spain Park teachers and Assistant Principal Jennifer Lowe were actually part of the school’s first graduating class in 2004.
After teaching Spanish at local schools for years, Lowe decided to return to Spain Park.
“This is the first place someone told me to consider being a teacher,” she said.
Danelle Cash, a French teacher, remembers the dances and tailgates when Spain Park started out with just freshmen and sophomore classes. From her time as a student, a substitute teacher and a full-time teacher, she has enjoyed seeing how students have increasingly diversified their friend groups.
Physical science teacher Eric Steinert and history teacher Bill Whitehead recalled their relief upon the opening of a new school within an easier commute range. Still, being a part of the first graduating class offered surreal experiences.
“At homecoming dances when we were first there, there was no one coming home,” Whitehead said.
Three other Spain Park teachers have also had their careers come full circle, back to their own high school days.
Morgan Lambert, a 2017 alumni who now teaches macroeconomics and U.S. government, said she came back because she “loved growing up in this town as a child.”
Hannah Rae Joseph, a 2009 graduate and Spanish teacher, feels like she “never actually left.” Lee Chumbley, a 2015 graduate and science teacher, is now helping his former track and cross-country coach train a new generation of athletes.
