Wildcat veterans walk the halls of of school, and not just long-time students. Some have known these classrooms for life.
2001 alumna and current teacher Sara Pitt attended Northview K-12, and loved every minute of it. The homecoming court dance during her senior year remains one of the most memorable events.
“Back in the day, we had choreographed dances based on a theme,” Pitt said. “ We got partnered up and learned intricate moves. We all felt a bit self conscious about performing in front of the entire student body, but we just tried to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously.”
For Pitt, graduation was “bittersweet.” Though it meant leaving behind her community, a part of her felt she needed time to explore. Her passion for education equity nudged her towards New York City. There, she applied to Teach For America, a nonprofit dedicated to a quality education for all people.
“I learned so much about other people’s cultures, living in a big city life,” Pitt said. “But after a few years of teaching in the Bronx, I was ready to move on, and I landed a job back home at Northview.”
Her advice to Northview students?
“Get out of your bubble for a minute and go explore, expand your horizons,” Pitt said. “A lot of Northview people leave for a while but come back. If you want to get back to your roots, you know why.”
For 1993 alumnus Trevor Chalmers, his roots lie in basketball. After exploring teaching jobs in other districts, he returned to Northview in 2007 to coach the sport he grew up playing and loving.
“I felt fortunate to [receive an offer] to come back,” Chalmers said. “Not everyone gets to do that.”
1995 alumnus Matthew Howe, another proud Northview lifer (with perfect attendance his senior year), expressed similar feelings. A self-professed band, swim, and tennis nerd, he found his passion among teaching and coaching. It took him a few years of coding at Michigan State University to realize that computer science didn’t match his vision of a lifelong career.
“I just started thinking, ‘I love school, I love coaching. Why don’t I do a profession where I can do things I love?’” Howe said. “One day, I’d had enough, and I said, ‘I have to make a change!’ I made an expensive choice, but I whistle while I work now.”
When he returned, he couldn’t help but notice the changes in the school. Sporting events, for one.
“We used to have a pep band at basketball games,” Howe said. “The [gym] got packed and it would roar. It’s weird now, because it seems like only a hundred people go to sporting events now. The whole school used to go.”
He attributes many of the changes to the current cell phone and internet accessibility. Chalmers agreed. He recalled using an overhead projector and VHS tapes during his student years, and attendance wasn’t taken online until after he began teaching. Both teachers think these changes have trade-offs. As Chalmers put it, “students have access to technology and it can be distracting.”
The biggest change Pitt witnessed was the 1998 expansion done on the building.
“The current social studies and science wings, along with the Performing Arts Center, were brand new my sophomore year,” she said.
Another difference from then and now is the courses being offered. Northview only had three Advanced Placement classes: Literature, Physics, and Psychology. Now students can choose from more than ten.
In addition to these advancements, Chalmers appreciates the resources available to students.
“Schools have to provide a lot of support, in terms of meals, social and emotional support, and jobs,” Chalmers said. “[We] had a lot of those things, but not in the volume students do now. We never talked about that.”
Despite the shift in what the school offers, two of Howe’s teachers, Eva Miller and Max Colley, showed him how to be someone who does more than teach in a classroom.
“They were dedicated, they were involved. They came to my swim and tennis meets,” Howe said. “They showed me that [as a teacher,] you can make an impact on other human beings.”
Colley hit the message home to not just Howe but many others, proven in the naming of the Performing Arts Center after him.
Now a teacher himself, there’s another man who completely changed the way Howe approaches school and life in general.
“We lost Ted Burba last year,” Howe said, “and he would always say to me: Do as much as you can, for as many as you can, for as long as you can. That’s a saying I think about every day of my life.”
These teachers, and many more, have shown Northview students the meaning of those words. They’ve demonstrated true Wildcat pride.
