At the start of every school year, hundreds of disoriented freshmen make their way through the halls of AHS for the first time, not knowing what to expect. In reality, the freshmen aren’t the only ones trying to finding their place and adjust to a new school. This school year, AHS will be welcoming 38 new members of the faculty and staff.

Among the most noticeable replacements are the Director of Student Activities Karl Kerns, Dean of Students Catherine Stone, and Assistant Principal Joe Thompson. In addition AHS will be welcoming a new guidance counselor, Katherine Raffaeli, seven new science teachers, six math teachers and eleven special education teachers this year, to name a few.

Other than having to meet their new co-workers and students, the new staff will also have to adjust to the new environment and the unique AHS traditions not found anywhere else.

Fairfax County does a lot to help train teachers for their jobs, so the new staff members won’t feel completely lost during their first day of class. “FCPS had a week-long training that teachers went through for eight hours a day,” new physics teacher David Tyndall said.

Tyndall worked as an intern last year at AHS and spent “half the time as a substitute [for science teachers] and half observing the physics teachers in class,” he said. After completing his Master’s degree in education at George Washington University this August, he’s starting this school year as a full-time physics teacher.

While AHS will be seeing many new teachers this year, most of them bring along years of experience from other schools in FCPS and from other counties. Chemistry teacher Yaara Crane used to work at J.E.B Stuart High School, a nearby high school, and transferred to AHS this year. Some, like math teacher Michael Mazzarella, came to AHS from neighboring Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland.

“I went to University of Maryland and got my degree in math and education,” Mazzarella said. “Then I was a student teacher for one year in MCPS, and that helped me prepare.”

Some of the differences Mazzarella noticed between FCPS and MCPS were the better organization and how team oriented everybody is here. “You feel like part of a team and the teachers are very supportive,” he said. “This school has a lot of programs for any student interest, I especially like the diversity.”

The main concern shared by many teachers is “to ease the transition for students,” Tyndall said. It can be challenging to get students accustomed to different teachers, especially those students who try to take advantage of the new ones.

“I want to take this year to settle myself, learn the community better, make a difference and teach [students] certain values,” Mazzarella said. “I’m looking forward to having fun.”