There are a total of 15 squads in place, functioning to organize student activities and connecting upperclassmen with principals, among other things.

“There’s a Student Activities squad where the teachers plan some of the dances and special activities that go on throughout the school year, a Student Advisory squad where there’s a group of upperclassmen who work as liaisons with the principals and a group of teachers and contribute their opinions of how things are going in the school and make suggestions about making improvements,” Harrington said. 

Each squad has regular meetings, which are organized by the teachers in charge of the squad. The meetings count towards the nine-hour requirement.

“Each squad is overseen by one of the principals in the building. Some squads require involvement with students and some don’t. Some are purely things that teachers are planning and organizing and working hard for, and some of them involve the kids,” Harrington said.

When COVID-19 arrived, squads became an afterthought as virtual learning took over.

“Squads were in place before COVID-19, before I was even working here at the high school. After COVID-19 happened, there was kind of a disconnect, for everybody, for the kids coming back to school and the teachers as they were kind of working their way back into the groove of being in person, and that was coupled with the ninth grade teachers having moved from the junior high school,” Harrington said. “There really wasn’t something in place to help those teachers come in and really feel like part of the high school.”

In response to this, squads were reintroduced to re-connect teachers, faculty and students upon returning to school.

“It was Mr. Neely’s idea to reintroduce the squads, and that brought teachers together in smaller groups where they could get to know each other and talk about the things that they wanted to see the school bring back and develop to make things a little bit more back to normal after COVID-19,” Harrington said.

Harrington oversees the Climate and Culture squad, which organized the golden ticket competition among teachers and is in charge of the March Madness bracket. The squad’s goal is to improve school morale as a whole. The Student Advisory squad also operates under her supervision.

“I oversee the Student Advisory squad, and that’s where I get to talk with some of the kids in the building and hear their suggestions, hear their take on some things that we’ve been trying out, encourage them to talk to the the freshmen and the underclassmen and try to teach them a little bit about what it means to be in school and how to survive it,” Harrington said.

The sophomore principal additionally oversees the Student Activities squad.

“We’re working on getting Spring Fling together,” Harrington said. “[The Student Activities squad] worked on the Turkey Bowl, some of the activities nights and things like that. There are so many different squads; there’s a squad for the Prom and the Afterglow. [There are] lots of different things that teachers are involved in here.”

German teacher Sandra Mitchell is a member of the Student Activities squad. The squad organizes and runs student activity nights, dances and both the student and teacher talent show.

“The main goal of our squad is to make school life more enjoyable and engaging for students,” Mitchell said. “We want to offer fun activities that bring students together, foster teamwork and create a positive school atmosphere. We hope to enhance the overall student experience and build a strong sense of community within the school.”

The Student Activities squad has been in place for a number of years, but the squad took a hiatus during the pandemic. The squad has resumed its activities in the past two years.

“In the fall, we hosted an exciting Student Activity Night featuring a Dodgeball tournament and various open gym activities like cornhole, volleyball, badminton, basketball, pickleball and swimming. In March, our talented students showcased their skills in a memorable talent show. Coming up on April 11, we’re gearing up for a fantastic Spring Fling dance exclusively for ninth and tenth grade students,” Mitchell said. “To wrap up the school year with a bang, May will feature a special talent show starring our amazing teachers.”

The squad kicked off the new school year with discussions on how to plan the events they would organize throughout the year.

“We met at the beginning of the school year to discuss the activities that will be offered as well as setting up dates,” Mitchell said. “Squad members then organize the logistical end such as booking of the DJ, room reservations, decoration ideas and set up, marketing, ticketing, food and drinks orders, and so on.”

Michael Baker, an instructional coach at AAHS, facilitates the New Teacher (NT) squad along with teachers Jaclyn Flick and Joseph Falger. 

“The [New Teacher] squad is made up of teachers who are in their first three years of teaching or perhaps have taught more than three years, but came from a different district. It’s almost like a mini-induction program,” Baker said. “There are currently about 35 teachers on the squad.”

The New Teacher squad has existed for over ten years, allowing new teachers to adapt more easily to AAHS’ environment.

“We hope that members of the NT squad have a smooth transition into working here at Altoona Area High School. We try to answer all of the questions that they have and try to predict some of the issues that they might face to prepare them for how to handle a conference, how to call off and what different types of sick days one can use, how to plan lessons, and—very important for those new to the district—a portfolio that they have to keep,” Baker said. “We do a lot of work especially in the third year with the portfolio.”

The electronic portfolio helps the district observe teachers’ behavior and allows new teachers to be considered for tenure.

“As part of what teachers do every year, as part of our observations, we have to have an electronic portfolio,” Baker said. “For new teachers, at the end of their third year, in order for them to be considered for what’s called tenure, which makes their job in essence, unless they do something terribly wrong, a permanent job, they have to show their progress over the three years. So those first three years in the portfolio are part of how the district decides to offer tenure to the teachers.”

The squad meets once a month on the Wednesday following the faculty meeting. Baker believes this is helpful to the teachers so that questions about new, unfamiliar things discussed at the faculty meeting can be answered.

“It’s very beneficial to get the perspectives of those that are on the squad because we often talk in education about what’s called the curse of knowledge. So the longer you do a job, the more you know about it, you forget the things that maybe new people don’t know. We just assume that they know it,” Baker said. “Working with them, the questions they ask really helps all of the facilitators think about what it was like when we started out and the questions we had. That’s very helpful because it also helps us be better colleagues and co-workers.”

The Climate and Culture squad is tasked with improving the overall climate of the school with a specific focus on teacher morale.

“It is only our second year, but we’ve actually done a great deal of activities,” astronomy teacher James Krug, a member of the squad, said. “I partnered with Hoss’s to have a monthly MEAT award for teachers—that stands for Mega Enthusiastic Achieving Teacher. Each month, my squad member friend, Julie Gardner, nominates four different teachers based on some teacher bios that they have the option to fill out, and it tells the rest of staff a little bit more about them. And then from that group, she will pick or a random student will pick one of the four as our deserving winner. Hoss’s has been extremely generous. Their General Manager is a woman named Amy Lunglhofer. Once a month, I will get four pastas, steaks, baked potatoes, and some special Hoss’s steak sauce.”

Krug is in charge of the Climate and Culture squad newsletter that is sent out to the faculty each month. The newsletter features the MEAT award and other events the club is involved in.

“Heather Partsch has teacher involvement raffle baskets twice a year, where if teachers do different activities—if they advise squads, if they come after school to watch sporting events—they get another chance for the raffle basket. She makes them very nice. Mr. McCarter will have after school happy hours for the faculty. Sometimes they’re at restaurants. Last year, Outback Steakhouse totally rolled out the red carpet for us,” Krug said. “Back during the fall, we had a college dress-down day where teachers all wore gear free of charge from their alma mater, and then students could complete a scavenger hunt.”

Along with the college dress-down day, the Climate and Culture squad introduced a new kind of scavenger hunt for teachers and staff this year.

“Myself and Julie Gardner, and Stephanie McAleer and Alyssa Hetrick have done a number of big promotions this year. We had our first ever golden ticket promotion, where teachers were able to walk around the school and find 11 golden tickets that were hidden just for teachers as part of a scavenger hunt,” Krug said. “And then, in March and April for the second year in a row, we’re doing our March Madness bracket. That started as something I actually did here in the planetarium for many years called Astronomy Madness, but we’ve since added the rest of the faculty to it, and even principals are involved this year. We primarily focus on doing things to improve teacher morale, but we have branched out to students as well.”