With the class of 2022 leaving this year, teachers gave some thoughts about how they feel.

Assistant principal Christopher Luther was a teacher when our class first came into high school. He taught honors biology before he became the assistant principal. Although he felt upset about abandoning his students and leaving teaching, his passion, he has seen us grow, first as a teacher, then as an assistant principal. He said that he is very proud of all that we endured these past few years with all the masks and masked events.

This year without all the COVID-19 drama, Mr. Luther said we had a great year with sports, academics, the play, and Rock Band. He also mentioned how proud he was of the support that was shown at the Swoosh for Change game. Although not all seniors were at Swoosh for Change, Mr. Luther said that the seniors brought the energy. He also said that Morgan will be losing a lot of great leaders. However, every grade eventually moves on and the next class grows. A message he’d like to leave us with is that we should be proud of ourselves. We should use the steps that we learned here at Morgan, having dealt with the pandemic, to better ourselves and our lives outside of Morgan when we leave.

Mathematics teacher John Madura has a special connection to our class. With a son and a nephew graduating this year, he said he will miss seeing their faces in the hallway every day, as well as the rest of our faces. Having a son and nephew in the class of 2022, Mr. Madura was able to get to know a lot of us more. He said he will miss us as well as our involvement in the sports, music, and classes at Morgan.  Mr. Madura’s favorite memories of our class are vast, including our trip to nature’s classroom. Although he has a lot of memories, his favorite memory is when Senior Tyler Mucha joined a bunch of random math classes during remote learning. Teachers would come to Mr. Madura asking, “Who is Tyler Mucha?” (Although Mr. Madura never sold Tyler out). Mr. Madura sympathizes with our class, having to take accountability and responsibility all throughout the pandemic, and is very proud of the people we have become.

A fun fact about Mr. Madura that many of the students at Morgan may know, is that third-grade teacher Whitney Madura is a teacher at Joel. Mr. and Mrs. Madura got to uniquely watch us grow and share memories. Another memory Mr. Madura shared was about one time when he was having a conversation with Mr. Luther about Senior Joe Ciarleglio. Mr. Madura had told Mr. Luther that when we were all in third grade, Mrs. Madura had Joe in her class. This is when Mr. Luther’s face became pale, and he said, “Wait…she had him ALL DAY???” For the Madura family, Joe holds a special place in their hearts.

Mr. Madura said he will definitely miss our class, but he is so happy for us to start all of our life journeys after Morgan. He also wanted to let all seniors know that we should send updates and feel free to stop in anytime to say hello.

Social Studies teacher Emily Kokernak said she has mixed emotions about the class of 2022 leaving. She said that she is sad to see us go and that she will miss us here at Morgan. However, she knows we are off to do great things once we leave. She also said that our class has great class spirit, even though we did go through a lot this year with COVID-19. She believes that our class set a great example for the rest of the school. She said she had a lot of fun going on mask breaks with our class when she had us for Civics because she was able to hang out with us and get to know us better. A message she wanted to leave with us is that we left a great legacy at Morgan, and it will continue.

Social Studies teacher Diana Rizzo said she loved the powder puff cheerleaders this year because of all the spirit that went into their performance. Social Studies teacher Chris Zawadski said he is sad to see our class go. He said we are a great class and overall a fun group. He admires the fact that our class has a great sense of humor while still being able to take things seriously when needed. Mr. Zawadski agrees that our class has great spirit, and he is sad to see that go. He said that Morgan will be losing a lot of spirit in their sports as well as plays and such. He said he wishes he was able to have more of us in his classes, but because of COVID-19, we were in and out of school. However, he does teach AP Gov and Sports and American culture, which gave him the opportunity to get to know some of us.