As the summer months approach, everyone is eager to make their own plans. Teenagers have begun the hunt for jobs, families have started to make vacation plans and friends are aching to hang out. But in all this commotion, most people don’t wonder what the high school staff members are planning to do over these long three months.
Brian Bollone is a science teacher who plans to continue his tradition of helping out his family by building and renovating.
“I thought I was going to be building a house this summer but I’m actually remodeling [one],” Bollone said. “My daughter just bought [a home] so I have to remodel it the first couple weeks of the summer.”
Bollone has been working on his family’s projects on-and-off for the last 20 years. He works by himself on smaller projects such as the pool house he built one summer. However, on bigger projects such as houses, he has to enlist his family to help him out a little.
“It’s just for fun but it is also something I know my kids will appreciate and use,” Bollone said. “We all help each other out as the need arrives.”
Travis Nichol is a history teacher and hockey coach at Northview. He also spends his summer doing renovations but in a much different way by flipping boats.
Flipping boats means fixing them and selling them for profit. Nichol has been fixing boats for about five years. In the spring or fall he finds cheap boats and during the summer he spends time working on the interior of the boat. He typically renovates around two boats a summer.
“I fix one and I sell it and hopefully make some money on it,” Nichol said. “So it is kind of a side job but I also enjoy seeing a boat that isn’t being used or that has just been sitting around and then seeing it back on the water when I’m done.”
As a kid, Nichol’s father had always worked on cars so when Nichol grew up, he decided to continue the legacy in a different way.
“I was always more into boats even though my dad’s niche was cars,” Nichol said. “It’s something fun for me while being able to spend time with my dad.”
Olivia Brown has been teaching math at the high school for two years. During the summer she attends Grand Valley State University and works as a manager at both Trail Side Treats and Kool Cone.
“Friends of mine know the owner of Trail Side Treats and Kool Cone and they were looking for someone that would help them out opening this summer,” Brown said. “They ended up asking me if I would be willing to help them out and I said yes.”
Brown is balancing work and school even in the summer. She has been doing college classes during the normal school year as well.
“On days that I’m not working I’ll be focusing on my college classes,” Brown said. “But it still is tough to balance.”
Not all teachers get to enjoy the luxury of a summer away from school. Sarah Snyder is continuing teaching math during summer school.
Snyder will be teaching summer school for the second time this summer. She enjoys getting to know the students individually and learning better ways to improve their education.
“I really enjoy teaching summer school because I get to help the students one on one when they need extra motivation,” Snyder said.
Snyder will be teaching all summer. There are three different sessions which each span three weeks.
“Once I start seeing them improve, I see they don’t need to do the full three weeks, most of the time if they do one week they’re done,” Snyder said. “It’s really not that bad like some people make it sound.”
So before this summer begins and the school year ends, ask the staff members what they plan to do this summer, it might be more interesting than one would expect.
