You may have noticed the changes around Chantilly this school year, including the change in counselors, new paint jobs and new faculty. Over the summer, many staff members prepared the school, themselves and their classrooms for the incoming students.

“We were excited that they paved the parking lots [and] fixed the curbs. All the lockers were painted a nice silvery-grey, something that hides dirt or damage. We [also] had some work done on classrooms,” standing principal KT Lynch said. “We finally have the new football field, which looks great, and the roof work is all done. We also got rid of some of those funky colors like the red, orange, yellow and blue walls we had in the subschools before renovations when Chantilly first opened.”

While the classroom and parking lot adjustments were made in order to increase student safety, many of the changes carried out on the school were done to create a cleaner, newer look to our 45-year-old building. The faculty worked extremely hard all summer to complete the multitude of projects around Chantilly.

“It gave the custodians a break because they lost two weeks throughout the summer. [Our custodians] work hard and do a phenomenal job,” Lynch said.

Every year incoming freshmen and new students are assigned counselors based on their last names. An alphabetical breakdown was put in place so that every counselor receives an even number of students. The breakdown was rearranged this 2017-2018 school year. With the change in the alphabetical sequence, some returning students were required to switch their initial counselors from the previous year. This caused a bit of trouble for seniors considering their counselors were the major source for college recommendations.

“We want to be able to know the [seniors] as well as possible,” Subschool 3 counselor Becky Clonts said. “For this year, we have set up meetings with families we didn’t meet with last year to get to know them. In reality, it’s not that many seniors; it’s mostly just freshmen since the freshman class is so large.”

The beginning of any school year comes with new changes to and among the faculty. For example, physical education teacher, Kristina Plaugher, joined the leadership team replacing Becky Campbell, who retired at the end of last school year.

“I think [Kristina] is going to bring a really wonderful dynamic to the class,” co-leadership teacher Samantha Reynolds said. “She graduated from Chantilly in 1999, so she is a Chantilly alumni. She’s been coaching field hockey for the past 13 years and can bring that coaching and team building aspect into the course. She’s extremely passionate about Chantilly and seeing students develop themselves to their fullest potential.”

The abundance of changes around Chantilly has left an exciting mark on the beginning of the busy school year. The many adjustments in the school provide a sense of starting fresh for all students, new and returning alike.