As she “breaks” into WGHS the day before her basketball tryouts with her friend, all she can think about is practicing her jumpshot for tomorrow. It’s not her fault; there was an open door to the high school. What she didn’t realize was that she had tripped the silent alarm signaling to the cops there was an intruder. But young Gina Woodard, PE teacher, was not thinking about the worst. Here are some other aspects about KHS faculty you might not expect.
Assistant principal Dr. Joshua Flores attended two high schools in Texas, where both of his parents were educators. According to Flores, this put a lot of pressure on him to succeed in school because of the close proximity to his parents.
“It’s helpful, because it [was] easy to not [want to] always do the right thing in high school,” Flores said. “Having that reminder of how close and easy it was to get a hold of my parents definitely made me do better.”
Lisa Shinabargar, social studies teacher, attended Parkway South High School and said the pressure to perform well in school came from herself. She said she had a rigorous course load and played basketball, volleyball and was the captain of the debate team.
“My dad would always joke that I would have benefited from getting a B,” Shinabargar said, “When I would be stressed out about my homework, volleyball and basketball schedule, [he said] it would be fine to have a missing
assignment.”
Academic achievement was not the only aspect that these teachers cared about. Flores received offers from multiple schools to play baseball in college. Woodard said she played on a very successful basketball team at WGHS.
“I was an athlete, that was my jam,” Woodard said. “I played four years of basketball, my senior year we were 23-4. I played with a girl who still is the leading scorer at WGHS. That was really fun.”
Around school, even teachers did manage to bend the rules a little. Jeff Gutjahr, math teacher, said he never spent time in detention. However, during his senior year at Lindbergh High School, he skipped class with a friend.
“I [had] my girlfriend’s mom call in to get me out of school one time,” Gutjahr said. “Me and my buddy wanted to go play golf; it was senior year spring and that’s what we did. It was a nice day [and] it was unexpected.”
Shawn Owens, journalism teacher, served community service detention at Chaminade High School after not being able to do a part of the test he forgot to do. According to Owens, he asked his drama teacher if he could retake that part, but she said it was too late.
“I just sat down [and] I just realized [I had forgotten a part]. She said something and then I said ‘that’s f-ing ridiculous,’” Owens said. “She said, ‘Go to Brother Bear,’ our principal. So I went and told him and he said ‘I understand, so we’ll see you on Saturday morning.’”
All five teachers originally said they did not want to be a teacher. Shinabargar said she wanted to become a lawyer like her dad, but during her senior year her mind changed.
“By chance I ended up switching my schedule and the only opening was AP U.S. history,” Shinabargar said. “So I took the class. I’d always liked history enough and I fell in love with the class. I really, really liked my teacher, so I decided I wanted to be a history teacher, and here I am.”
