Almost every year, a teacher must leave for an extended period of time in order to take care of their newborn child. This year, filling in for English teacher Amanda Auger is Maile Chaplar, who will take over for her English classes for an undetermined amount of time because Mrs. Auger gave birth to a baby boy in July.

Ms. Chaplar graduated from Old Saybrook High School(OSHS) in 2015 and received her degree from Southern Connecticut State University. After college, she worked three different waitressing jobs until it hit her: “I paid a lot of money for an education degree and wasn’t doing anything with it.” She quit two of her jobs and moved forward.

Ms. Chaplar applied for a full-time position here at Morgan over the summer after her previous experience with teaching at OSHS wasn’t her favorite. She, unfortunately, did not get the job. A few weeks later at 9:30 am, she was just relaxing at her house when she received a phone call from Mr. Luther. He asked her to come in for an interview in one hour for the position of a long-term substitute. The interview went great, and she loved how welcoming Vice Principal Christopher Luther and Principal Keri Hagness were.

Ms. Chaplar enjoys working at Morgan. She said, “I really like how everyone is supportive of one another, and it starts at the top and trickles down.” She said that the head of the administration cares for Mrs. Hagness and Mr. Luther, then they care for every teacher, and every teacher cares for all the students. She also loves the student culture. When she attended OSHS, the spirit was very fake and boring; however, here at Morgan, there is a lot of pride for our school and our teams. According to Ms. Chaplar, the thing that has stood out the most in being different from Old Saybrook is that here, Mrs. Hagness as well as many other teachers check in on her often in her free periods. She greatly appreciates that level of support from her coworkers.

Ms. Chaplar currently has the task of teaching 3 different grade levels during her day. Her thoughts on this were, “It’s madness. I love it though. I like my content area a lot, and I love teaching English.” She must formulate 3 different lesson plans each day and she says it can be stressful, especially as a new teacher.

When Mrs. Auger returns, she joked, “I plan on body-snatching another teacher.” Ms. Chaplar loves working with the students at Morgan. She said, “I would really love to stay here. I don’t hope Mrs. Auger stays out the rest of this year, but I love this position so much. I don’t want to leave Morgan.” If once Mrs. Auger does return, and she cannot stay at Morgan, she will look for another full-time position in a place as close to Morgan as she possibly could find.