New students weren’t the only ones nervous at the beginning of the year. Stone Bridge also gained a truckload of new teachers who were equally as nervous. Almost every department acquired a new staff member, and some were lucky enough to get even more than one. This year, Stone Bridge attained a total of twenty-four new staff members, from custodians to administrators.

Mr. Flynn

Principal Timothy Flynn shared what it is that he looks for in a new hire, and one specific term came up: high efficacy. Efficacy is the ability to produce a desired or intended result. When this is applied to education, it means that teachers not only have the power to get results they want to get through believing that every student is teachable and able to succeed.

Ms. Williams

Laurie Williams is the new CTE teacher to join the staff of Stone Bridge. Ms. Williams teaches Introduction to Cyber security, which is a new class being offered to students this year. She is the senior advisor as well. Before coming to teach at Stone Bridge, Ms. Williams taught at Loudoun Valley.

Ms. Williams decided to teach at Stone Bridge because of the inviting atmosphere and the supporting staff at the school. Although there are many things about Stone Bridge that make it stick out among all other schools, Ms. Williams finds that most unique aspect about SBHS is the school spirit.

While Ms. Williams is not a big movie person, her favorite 2018 movie, so far, is “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”

Ms. Blake

Karisa Blake is new to the Social Science department. She teachers World History I. Before coming to teach at Stone Bridge, Ms. Blake taught English and history abroad in Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea over the course of four years. She taught a variety of students there, ranging from age 3 to 99. Teaching in a completely different part of the world has changed her perspective on education.

What drew Ms. Blake to Stone Bridge was the overall environment. She says it was the abundance of school spirit and the strong teachers that made Stone Bridge the ideal environment.

Despite the fact that she rarely goes to the movie theater, Ms. Blake’s favorite movie from 2018 is “Life of the Party.”

There are a lot of aspects that set Stone Bridge aside from other schools, but in Ms. Blake’s opinion, the thing that stands out and makes Stone Bridge especially unique is the student leadership. She says that she was impressed to discover that students lead and organize a wide range of activities and programs within the school.

Ms. Nastasi

Jessica Nastasi is a new addition to the English department at Stone Bridge. She teaches ninth grade English.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to Ms. Nastasi’s decision to teach at Stone Bridge, such as the great environment, supportive staff, and the overall kindness of students. She also appreciated the welcoming atmosphere of the school.

Ms. Nastasi has not had the chance to see many movies this year, but her favorite out of the ones she did see is “Black Panther.”

For Ms. Nastasi, the one thing that helps SBHS stand out from her previous teaching opportunities is the strong school spirit within the community.

Additional New Staff

The additional new staff members are: Calvin Adams (Admin), Shahrazad Kablan (Admin), Timothy Flynn (Admin), Joseph Berry, Eric Demorest (Counseling), Karisa Blake, Doug Graney, Alix VanSickle (Social Science), Sunny Burd, Laurie Williams, Danielle Banks (Mathematics), Jessica Nastasi, Molly Russo, Emily Moore (English), Sean Cogolludo, Paul Walsh (World Languages), Kathryn Wester (Science), Laura Channing (Library), Sandy Sokol (Learning Resource), Erika Hippler (Learning Resource), Mykera Days (Special Education), Maria Alfaro (Custodian).