When a new student arrives at school, he or she faces many challenges and problems. But when a new teacher comes to school, it’s a whole different story. Brian Held, a new associate principal, had big shoes to fill. He took over for Kerry Parsons, who now is the principal at East Middle School.

He said his favorite part of his job is observing the classrooms.

“I love getting into classrooms and watching teachers teach,” he said.

Held, who previously worked as a health enhancement teacher at Sacajawea Elementary, sought an opportunity to get out of the classroom and into the school.

“I wanted to become a school administrator to help more people than just those in the classrooms,” he said.

Held is one of four new staff members at C.M. Russell High School for the 2013-2014 school year.

Like Held, new media center specialist Jamie Williams said she felt like trying something new.

“I worked the last 15 years with elementary school kids and I wanted to try something different,” she said. “The biggest challenge for me is learning young adult literature. I know Dr. Seuss and Clifford.”

Williams said she hopes to make the media center a more welcoming place for students by adding bright colors and furniture, and increasing the number of books in both the print and online collection.

Replacing Dave Stukey, retired business teacher, Stacy Dolderer said she hopes to make an impact on the school.

“I hope to modernize that particular curriculum maybe bring it more up to date and relevant to the students,” she said of personal finance.

Dolderer is no stranger to CMR, however.

“I graduated from here so it’s kind of neat being back seeing it again,” she said.

All the new teachers share one common thing: their love of teaching and working with kids, and guitar/choir teacher Joel Corda is no different.

“My favorite part of the day is working with kids. There’s a lot of great energy and creativity that comes from them, and it feeds me creatively. It’s exhausting at the end of the day but in that moment working with kids and having something that happens between us where we both learn, we both are better for the day,” Corda said.

Corda, who has sung opera for the last 20 years and continues to dabble in his love of music by sharing it with others, said he has big goals for himself and his students.

“More than anything, I would like to leave behind the idea that there is somebody in this building that cares about these kids. If they know that they can feel that, and that’s somebody that they can think of as they grow older, like ‘Hey, you know when I experienced problems in my life, there was somebody that supported me.’”