The Unknown Importance of Hall Monitors 

By: Quinn Bird 

      In the new school year of 2023-2024, some students noticed new faces within the halls. April Hafford being one of them. Hafford was noticed in the hallways, along with colleague Ryan O’Conner as the new hall monitors of Hermon High School, taking the spot of Kevin Barry, the past school years hall monitor.

   Hafford is originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was born and raised. She attended a small private school that didn’t have many students, compared to Hermons almost 600 students: “I went to a very small, private school growing up, so we definitely did not have any hall monitors.” When leaving school she pursued a career in the military. Hafford was a Supervisor for an Administrative Office in the United States Coast Guard, where they were responsible for overseeing and maintaining personnel records for members. She maintained this position for a number of years until she ultimately left the service to become a stay at home Mom: “I loved my job but sometimes the responsibilities can take a toll on your family and both of my kids were pretty young at the time.” 

After leading an already fulfilling life, serving the country and sacrificing her career to take care of her kids, she became a high school hall monitor: “I was looking to go back to work and Hermon had some openings that I was interested in and I had heard great things about this school so I decided to apply. Once I came in for the interview and met with the leadership, I knew this was a place and environment that I really wanted to be a part of and was looking forward to working here.” . 

In the job description for being a hall monitor, it states to keep the safety of the general campus of a school. While that seems like an easy enough task, there are other responsibilities that Hafford does day-to-day. From taking attendance for the United Technology Center students on the morning bus, to doing office work that takes up a chunk of the morning, she is busy. After completing the morning tasks Hafford says, “I try to visit various classrooms before heading to lunch duty. After lunch duty, I usually walk through and visit classrooms and monitor the halls before the school day is over.”

Now with the first quarter coming to a close at Hermon High School, the biggest challenge Hafford has had to face is learning who all the students are and learning how everything works in a school setting. With the school size, anyone would think that as a daunting task, but Hafford walks the halls, greeting students and monitoring classroom activity with ease. To keep the flow of the job, Hafford says communication and being able to work with people plays a big part in keeping things running smoothly: “It’s important to be able to communicate and relate with others to maintain a healthy working environment.” She also says that some qualities from being in the Coast Guard have carried over to being a Hall Monitor: “I think learning to be a responsible and reliable person has carried over into my own personal expectations for what type of employee and peer that I want to be. I think it’s incredibly important to be someone that can be responsible for themselves and what’s expected of them and someone that others know they can depend on.” 

From being a member of the Coast Guard to a highly appreciated high school hall monitor, Hafford has become a beloved member of the high schools community and adds to the welcoming atmosphere of the school.

Dream Job

By: Lily Deschaine 

Have you ever thought about how different your dream job as a kid is to your dream job now? As a kid, Jenny Stahl dreamed of being an underwater archeologist. Discovering new creatures and artifacts under the sea was what she wanted to do. As she grew up, she began to realize that in reality this would not be the job for her: “I’m not very good at swimming, and over time I got more and more scared of water.” But now, Mrs. Stahl has found her true dream job at our own Hermon High School library.

As someone who has always loved teaching and books, Mrs. Stahl cannot believe that she was able to get the opportunity to work at Hermon High: “I love it, I can not believe this is actually a job that people pay me to do because it’s so fun”.  

Before working here, Mrs. Stahl was a 4th and 5th grade teacher for 15 years. Now that she works at Hermon High, it is a very different experience: “I was a little nervous to work with high schoolers, but the idea of getting to be in a place surrounded by books was a really exciting thought.” Her husband Nick Stahl also works at the school and was able to tell her all of the amazing things about Hermon.

When it comes to working at our school Mrs. Stahl is making it her goal to get more students to read books: “I would like to get more books in the hands of more students and make a strong connection between the school and the community.” Mrs. Stahl is a great addition to our community and is so happy that she was able to find her dream job here with us at Hermon High school.

New Face Roaming the Halls of Hermon High

by: Cooper Stanley

Hermon High School has experienced some fluctuation in hallway staff in the past few years. This year was no different as Hermon High said goodbye to Mr. Barry who was new at the High School last year; since then he moved down to work at Patricia A. Duran School. 

Some new faces would emerge, one being Mr. Ryan O’Connor.  A Maine native who has been all over, serving in the Marine Corps: “My family also served in the military. And I felt that it was my duty to serve the country.” He worked previously at Glenburn Elementary as an Ed. Tech. for young students. Becoming a hall monitor was never a dream for him. But, he said he chose to become a hall monitor because “It was a great opportunity that presented itself at the right time.” He was not wrong. Spots on the staff at HHS have been constantly changing. And once Mr. Barry left, it opened the door for many new faces.

So, why would anybody want to choose Hermon? The answer for Mr. O’Connor was simple: “I’ve recruited out of this school ever since I was in the military, and it seemed like a great school.” The military is a major part of his life.  And being able to work at a school with many students coming from it, going right into the army. The scene was just right for him and what he liked.

Being a hall monitor is quietly one of the most critical jobs at schools. But the work they do is mostly behind the scenes. When I talked to Mr. O’Connor, he mentioned some of the many responsibilities that he has as a hall monitor which include: “Making sure kids aren’t wandering the halls, making sure that attendance is being taken and delivered properly, as well as covering lunches, and helping where he can.” These are all significant parts of what goes on in a school for multiple reasons. For one, if students aren’t in class when they aren’t supposed to be not only does it affect them but it affects the school, as their grades will be hurt and the school will lose funding as test scores go down. If attendance is not taken, or delivered properly it can affect school performance and data. Causing certain issues for the school. And covering lunches can be a very big deal for a lot of teachers, who may need that time to help students or grade papers. All that he does is vital to the school and most of it goes completely unnoticed.