This year at Cass High School, numerous new teachers and administrators are joining us to help us strive toward excellence and have a successful school year. Additionally, a few familiar faces are transitioning into new positions. So, to help the students get to know the new teachers and administrators, each new employee submitted a little blurb about themselves so students could get to know them.

New teachers

Mrs Halpern

First, we have Mrs. Haplin, who happens to be a Cass High alumni. In the words of Mrs. Haplin, she always thought she’d end up teaching at Cass. However, she expected it to be somewhere other than right out of college, so she was excited to get the opportunity to work here. Mrs. Haplin likes Cass because she enjoys the community. When attending here, she always had fun no matter what she was doing—some of Mrs. Haplin’s favorite pastimes include reading, writing, listening to music, and attending concerts. This year, Mrs. Haplin looks forward to teaching students and getting the experience of working alongside other teachers.

Mr. Calandra 

Mr. Calandra’s passion for teaching was ignited during his junior year of high school. Before starting his job at Cass, he had been a football coach for Cass for four years. According to him, this experience familiarized him with the Cass High community, making his transition into teaching much easier. Additionally, he has teacher friends, who he said have helped with this transition. Overall, Mr. Calandra loves everything about sports and looks forward to teaching ninth-graders environmental science this school year.

Mrs Campbell

According to Mrs. Campbell, her gateway into teaching was sports. Growing up, she never really wanted to be a teacher; her parents were both teachers, and she never felt drawn to it. However, one day, she broke down the aspects of coaching (something she is passionate about). She realized coaching and teaching are very similar. Mrs. Campbell loves helping others and bringing them up; she also likes assisting people to answer their questions. These are all crucial parts of both coaching and teaching. Therefore, she concluded this was the job for her, especially because she also loves math. As for what she does in her free time, Mrs Campbell loves being outside, and like Mr. Calandra, she loves all kinds of sports, particularly tennis and football. She is also planning on helping coach softball and soccer this year here at Cass.

Mr. Burdett

Though Mr. Burdett is a new teacher at Cass High, this is not his first year teaching; he spent the last two years at Southeast Whitfield High School. Before teaching, Mr. Burdett was an alumnus of Lagrange College and Walden University, where he attained his psychology degree and master’s degree in Forensic psychology. Mr. Burdett is very excited to join the Cass High family this year, and we are delighted to have him here.

Mrs. Gonzolaz

Mrs. Gonzolaz is a new language teacher here at Cass. Her motivation for becoming a teacher is to help struggling students regain focus and be able to work on the task at hand. Mrs. Gonzolaz is very family-oriented and loves spending time with her children; she is her daughter’s biggest volleyball fan. This year, her goals are to grow as a teacher and help her students succeed in learning Spanish.

Mr. Harrell

Next is Coach Harrell, the Cass High girls’ basketball coach for the 2024-2025 school year. Mr. Harrell has coached at the college level for over twenty years and will teach Geometry concepts this year. He has a degree from Georgia Southwestern State University and is the father of four kids.

Mr. Spell

Another Cass High alumnus is Mr. Spell, who is glad to be back. Mr. Spell’s bachelor’s degree is from Young Harris College, where he played baseball. In his free time, Mr. Spell enjoys watching sports, and this year, he will be coaching softball here at Cass.

New Admin

Dr. Bailey

Next, we have Dr. Bailey, our school’s learning support specialist; what is a learning support specialist, some may ask? It’s everything learning; her job ranges from teaching teachers new strategies to tier-two student planning. Dr. Bailey’s job is to answer the following two questions: What do we do when students don’t know the material? And what do we do when they do know the material? So she covers all the school’s extensions and remediation programs, mostly doing things such as making the Gold-time schedule.

Before Mrs. Bailey started working here this year, she was the LSS administrator at Cass Middle School, and she taught all math classes, algebra, algebra 2, and geometry at Woodland High School. She is very family-oriented. She has two kids, Zoe and Brock, who are also colonials. Additionally, Miss Bailey enjoys playing tennis; She has loved tennis ever since she played in college and is a very active, fun, and loving person.

Mrs Hory 

Mrs. Hory is our assistant principal over curriculum and professional development, her job is to help teachers learn and form new curriculums. Mrs Hory loves teaching kids and teaching adults and in this position she gets to do both. Mrs. Hory is a mother, wife, and a dog mom, who enjoys spending her time with her family. This year Mrs. Hory is excited to help and watch students and teachers grow and learn. 

New Positions

Mrs. Wallraven

Mrs. Wallraven is one of our teachers stepping up and moving into a new position. Instead of teaching EOSL this year, she is the assistant principle over ninth-grade discipline and the fine arts classes; she is also over the school’s marketing. Mrs. Wallraven is looking forward to working with both teachers and students and being a voice for those who don’t always get heard. She enjoys cooking, being with her family, and going to Disney. Her main goal this year is to help students grow and reach their goals. 

Mrs Agan

Lastly, we have Mrs. Agan, the academic support teacher; her job is to work alongside teachers and help them develop and form lesson plans and curriculums. Mrs. Agan was previously a literature teacher here at Cass for the past eighteen years; this is where she met her husband, our school’s former theater teacher, to whom she has been married for twelve years. Mrs. Agan enjoys making crafts, cooking, and spending time with her two kids. Mrs Agan decided she would like to have this role after she went to a conference last year and understood the job. She took the job because she wanted to help all kids, not just the ones in her classroom. 

With that, lets extend a warm welcome to our new teachers for the 2024-2025 school year!