New Church Life September/October 2015 | Page 89

  Susan O. Odhner, Girls School Principal Jeremy T. Irwin, Boys School Principal For several years, Gwenda Cowley has been the Senior Girls co-teacher for Religion, and for the last few years the Rev. Michael Cowley has taught Sophomore Boys Religion. Michael and Gwenda have been called to serve the Olivet Society in Toronto and we wish them great success in Canada. Ivan and Amy Maddock will be moving to the West Coast in January. Amy stepped in to co-teach Senior Project last year, but will not return to that role. After a number of energetic and diligent years of service, Ivan will not return to the classroom this year, but has graciously agreed to serve one more year as the assistant director of the fall play. Simon Daum is reducing his teaching load to make room for other pursuits, but will continue as co-director of the Instrumental Ensemble and will be assisting Naomi Haus-Roth in the Mitchell Performing Arts Center. With these teachers leaving or reducing their teaching, we have an opportunity to welcome some new professionals on board. Dylan Odhner is joining us full time, teaching Sophomore Boys Medieval History, Senior Project, Algebra 2, and serving as Social Media Manager in concert with the Admissions Office and other administrators. Theolog Elmo Acton is teaching Sophomore Boys Religion. We are grateful for his willingness to step in and appreciate the flexibility and support of the faculty of the Theological School in facilitating this opportunity. Greg Synnestvedt is teaching AP Statistics and Accelerated Algebra. Martha Odhner is increasing her roles to include Chemistry and Honor Society Advisor. Michaela Boyesen is coming on board to teach Latin 1 to freshman girls, and Becca Uber is teaching Algebra 3. In addition to these staffing changes, we have a number of internal shifts to cover all the courses we offer. In an effort to reduce our budget and streamline some processes, the Secondary Schools has embarked on a technology initiative that should improve our wireless connectivity and consolidate some of our IT functionality. As part of this initiative we have hired Hayley Gunther as our Instructional Technologist. In addition to being critical to the effective implementation of the initiative this summer, Hayley’s main role is to facilitate effective technology 521