Rooms shuffled and new hires welcomed

   Published Oct. 10, 2024

Felix Locker

News Editor

This year the high school has hired two assistant principals and four new teachers, and various important rooms and offices have changed places. 

New assistant principal OJ Gulley used to work with the Hillsboro School District as a teacher, coach, and principal. Gulley also worked as the assistant principal at Hillcrest High School in Midvale, Utah just in the last year. New assistant principal Ortiz-Mcneese has been a teacher, coach and more with DDSD for 18 years, most notably as a Vice Principal at Ron Russell Middle School for the past three years.

The four new teachers are learning specialist Sada Adams, math teacher Grant Collins,  level up teacher Bill Goldsberry and science teacher Alex Vu.

One new thing being implemented this school year is After School Student Assist (ASSA). ASSA is similar to in school suspension but is done after the school day in an attempt to keep students in their classrooms during the school day. ASSA will run at 2:40 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Like most after-school activity, students will be given  a bagged lunch and are offered transportation home on the two activity buses.

A revamped entrance has been built by the main office between the north’s front door and the hallway to the north cafeteria, in order to stop tardy students and make them get a pass, but also as a way to  stop any intruders from getting into the school.

In recent room changes, the attendance office has now been moved from room 103 to the front office. Room 103 has been filled with the Student Management Office where a student will find our school’s three deans. 

The Scots Center has moved from room 122 to room 105. In the Scots center students may go and receive support in any subject at any level, from freshman English to AP Literature. Run by Galen Schmitt, the center is open Mondays to Fridays from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and for after school assistance Monday through Friday until 4:30 p.m. 

Replacing the Scots Center in Room 122 is the African American Student, College, Career and Community Liaison, and the home of Black Student Union and its advisor, Ghermanie Allen. 

Room 123 is the new location of the Latino Services office, which includes Latino Student Union, Latino Network and El Programa.

In the same hallway, room 120 has the College and Career Center where students of all grades may go and use their resources to succeed later in life. A new staff member has joined this room, Sally Imfeld. Imfeld’s role is to set up in-person college rep and military visits, college field trips, as well as planning other college and career related activities. The Career Center says that their vision is that “The Career Center exists to Equip Today’s Students For Tomorrow’s Future!”

This year, David Douglas High School has a nearly 10% increase in Freshman compared to last year with a general increase of around 2.5% increase in the general amount of students.