Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home High School language arts teacher Steve Emmert is moving to Sweet Home Junior High School as its new vice principal in the upcoming school year.
When he was hired last week by the school board, Director Don Hopkins, a former junior high school principal, joked that Emmert was now working in the room where he always used to see Emmert as a student.
Maybe a little exaggeration, but “let me put it this way,” Emmert grinned as he looked through his office’s sliding door to the junior high courtyard. “I know this view pretty well.”
Emmert grew up in Sweet Home, graduating from Sweet Home High School in 1977. He attended Linn-Benton Community College for one term, worked the rest of the year and transferred to Western Baptist Bible College. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education in 1983. The last two years at Western Baptist, he also attended Western Oregon State College, now Western Oregon University, where he earned his teaching credentials and a bachelor of science in secondary education.
Emmert was certified to teach English and social studies.
He taught for a year in Medford before an English job opened up in Sweet Home and he returned to the community in the summer of 1984. He worked at the high school for six years then spent another six years as a counselor and youth guide at Community Chapel. He returned to education four years ago.
Over the last year, he pursued his administration certification.
“Initially, I wasn’t interested in teaching,” Emmert said. “I’d wanted to teach a couple of years then become a high school counselor, but once I started teaching, I love it so much. Even when I went to Community Chapel, I still loved teaching, but I saw a need there. I wanted to try to help out there, and I love new challenges.”
Facing different challenges, Emmert likes to make a difference; but he had not been that interested in administration prior to last year.
“I was encouraged to try administration, and at first I thought that I’d take some classes and see what it was about,” Emmert said. “But I loved teaching and planned to retire as a teacher.
“Once I started taking classes, I realized the impact a person can make as an administrator is broader than it is for a classroom teacher. At some point I became excited about the challenge. Administrators can make a difference in an entire school in that they can help students and they can help teachers.”
Just what new challenges await at Sweet Home Junior High, Emmert doesn’t know yet, he said. “I’ve discovered that the learning curve is 90 degrees at this point.”
He is familiar with the age group he will deal with. His children are all junior high age or older.
“I really don’t expect it to be terribly different as far as kids go,” Emmert said. They won’t be that much different than his high school students, who recently have been mostly freshmen, “but truthfully, I’ll have to find out as a lot of the year progresses.”
Emmert taught all levels of English while at Sweet Home High School, including freshman English and freshman honors. He also taught seniors, research papers and world literature.
Emmert will miss teaching.
“I love to see young people learn how to use our language. I love to teach,” Emmert said, adding mischievously that “I think I will miss having just a classroom of students of my own that I can pick on and harass.”