The start of the 2018-2019 school year at Mishawaka High School (MHS) has brought several changes to the Pupil Services Office (PSO), including the addition of staff. In an effort to better support teachers and students, PSO added three deans, affording a dean for each grade. Chad Brugh, new this year from Beiger Elementary, is the freshman class dean. The sophomore class dean is Sean Steinkellner, a former social studies teacher at MHS. The junior class dean is Dave Troyer, who was previously a dean for the sophomore and junior classes for MHS. Jessica Mann, previously an English teacher at MHS, is the senior class dean.
Though the new dean policy was introduced to the student body at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, faculty was notified of the changes late last school year. “There have been conversations for a while, about different structures,” Mann said. She disclosed that the staff was notified on May 18th of the school board approval for the changes. “We [administration] knew there was gonna [sic] be some change,” Mann said.
“A lot of what we do is to spread out some of the attendance work that Mrs. Fisher has been doing, so now each grade level dean is responsible for the attendance for that grade,” Mann said. Mann also stated that they take care of the disciplinary action issues for each grade as well.
Mann feels as if the overall attitude and morale of the school has improved since the new dean policy has been implemented. “We are two weeks in, and kids seem happy. The word we use in education is school climate, and I feel that our climate this year feels excited,” Mann said.
Elizabeth Nicodemus, a junior at MHS, said, “We didn’t know about the deans until the beginning of the school year so it was a bit of a surprise.” Damien Green, a sophomore at MHS, agreed with the changes. “It’s going to improve the student -teacher relationship,” said Green. Some students are hopeful about the new deans. “Hopefully having additional administrators focused on specific grade levels will help things run more smoothly with our growing number of students and transfers,” senior Madison Hess stated.