Newton High School continues to welcome new staff

by Kaylee Mangual

Newton High School is a very united population, with a diverse community, diverse students and a diverse staff. Even throughout the school year, new staff continue to fill the school and our classrooms.

Mr. Sedlock, a new gym teacher at Newton, shared in a recent interview his experience at Newton High School. He came from many schools all over Sussex County even down to Passaic and has coached teams all throughout the county, and is the director of True. True is a lacrosse club located in Sparta for high school boys and girls. It is located in 27 different states and every state has more than one region. They traveled all over the east coast playing in tournaments. His time here so far has been exciting. Mr. Sedlock served as a volunteer coach to the girls basketball team and started the girls lacrosse club team. He did research to realize NHS is one of the only schools to not have a girl lacrosse team. With that information, it inspired him to start a girls lacrosse team especially since Newton has very talented athletes. 

He enjoys the fact that Newton has its own “personality” as it is different from most schools. Mr. Sedlock returns to NHS after teaching here at the beginning of COVID. While speaking with Mr. Sedlock a question was asked what his goal was being a teacher here at Newton and his response was “To make a difference. Somebody who went to school to be a teacher, that was my goal from the beginning. I think that being here for a short amount of time, I am hoping I have made a good  impression.” 

He went to Marywood University in Pennsylvania and he majored in Health and Physical Education with a double minor in coaching and nutrition, while playing lacrosse for four years there. He is such a well liked teacher at the school that the students are very comfortable to call him by only his last name. He continues to leave a positive, supportive impression on the students, staff, and community of Newton High School everyday.

Ms. Gascon, who is the substitute English teacher for Mrs. Clawson, has been here for a couple of months. She has taught at a couple of schools in Sussex County, two being Kittatiny and Sussex Tech. She went to William Paterson, majoring in English education with a special education certification. She likes the mentality of the school, administration, the teachers, and how they put the students first. She finds enjoyment in the community and the school spirit that she talks about how she has not seen at any other school. Her students manage to keep her on her toes, coming in as a new teacher she expected it to be like every other school but it caught her by surprise that Newton has its own character. Asking a follow up question to what did she expect from our school, I asked her what was different about Newton.