Along with other changes to the high school, 19 new staff members were added to the Ritenour family.

One new addition is Jameel McCaine, who came from the Normandy School District, and started at Ritenour last year as a substitute. McCaine is Ritenour’s Walking Counselor and hall monitor. He enjoys Ritenour because he revels in the changes and advantages the school has to offer.

“Working at Ritenour is good because it is so multicultural and everyone is open minded,” McCaine said.

Science teacher Tim Burkard came from an alternative school with a maximum enrollment of 40 students, but is very similar to Mccaine in his assessment of the school. Burkard hopes that the students that take his class not only learn science, but also leave with skills that will help them in the future.

“I like working at Ritenour because there is such great diversity in the building. Students and teachers with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, it keeps everyday interesting,” Burkard said.

In addition to Burkard having something interesting every day, many students had an interesting experience when they saw one of their old principals. Before Mr. Bilal Ewing became an assistant principal at Ritenour High School, he was an assistant principal at Hoech Middle School for 14 years. Ewing feels that working at Ritenour High is exciting, nerve-wracking, and there is a lot of movement and energy.

“When I was asked to consider working at Ritenour High, I tried to turn it down, but I thought ‘Change is a good thing,’ that is what persuaded me to transfer to Ritenour High. It is a really great experience,” Ewing said.

David Watkins, better known as Coach Watkins, followed Ewing’s example of change when he coached the boys varsity basketball team last year while still working at McCluer High School. This year he came over full time to teach math.

“I hope to accomplish 100% graduation rates, and to win a couple of State basketball championships,” Watkins said.

Two of the other teachers had much bigger transitions than Ewing and Watkins. Sarah Sullins taught at a school in Glendale, Ill. for 11 years. Sullins now teaches Food and Nutrition Safety at Ritenour High School.

“The transition to Ritenour High was a little difficult, because of the speed, size, and so much diversity. It’s a bit challenging to take it all in at once but I like the challenge,” Sullins said.

Christopher Bailes is Ritenour’s new full time German teacher. Before he came to Ritenour he taught Social Studies, which wasn’t his area of expertise. This has made his experience a positive one.

“The transition from my old school to this one has been a relatively smooth one. I am now teaching the subject the area that I am best trained for, whereas before I was a little bit out of my area of expertise,” Bailes said.