North Canton City Schools has recently built two new schools and the community is very excited for this change. However, with new schools comes new positions and many of those positions have been filled by previous employees of the district. Among the new hires or new positions are Mr. Taylor Sowers, Mrs. Hollie Donald, Mrs. Anna Stangelo and Mr. Tim Hulse. School counselors play an important role in the school setting and Sowers and Donald are the perfect people to be in that position. Sower’s career in the education field started in 2014 teaching middle school science at NCMS. He believes that his background in teaching has prepared him in many ways.
“In my former role as a science teacher, I was able to meet and get to know a lot of the students and their families,” he said. “By speaking with them through parent teacher conferences, open houses, sporting events, or out in the community, I feel connected to this community and the position allows for that additional communication to exist. That is extremely helpful when working with our students in the role of a counselor.”
With a new position, however, comes brand new challenges. For Donald, she is starting off this year in a new district.
“Before this change, I was a school counselor at Lake Middle High School,” she said. “Prior to that, I taught for two years at a private elementary school in Massillon. The experience from my previous job provided me with a great base for understanding the position I am in now, and how to work with high school students.”
Working with high school students is a big part of the job, but both counselors get to look at it from a different point of view.
“In my previous role as an eighth-grade teacher, once the students left the middle school, I never knew what happened at the high school level,” he said. “Did they start a trade? Career Tech Program? Go to college? These were
questions that I never knew the answer to, and now I have a better understanding of that. I cannot forget my students. While my caseload is Hi-Mc, I still enjoy walking the hallways and talking to all my former students and catching up with them on what they are doing now.”
With Donald’s background and her being new to the district, she gets the opportunity to meet and create new bonds with the students of Hoover High School.
“The biggest difference is the students I am serving,” she said. “Hoover has a larger population of students. I am also working more closely with Career Tech Education, which is very new to me. I enjoy getting to know my students, and knowing that I can provide tools that our students can use for the rest of their lives.”
‘Moving forward, both Sowers and Donald have created strong goals for themselves in the 2023-24 school year.
“One of my biggest goals that I have for the year is to help and support the students of Hoover,” Sowers said. “If that is a simple hello, or a conversation in my office, I am wanting to help YOU reach your goals.”
Donald not only has a goal, but some words of wisdom to share with her students.
“My biggest goal is to feel comfortable and take in as much information as possible,” she said. “I work better when I give myself processing time. This year is all
about processing new information. Two phrases that I repeat over and over, that you may hear often from other adults: Be comfortable being uncomfortable and stop comparing yourself to someone whose life looks nothing like yours.”
New but familiar faces are also now seen at the head of the buildings. Mr. Tim Hulse and Mrs. Anna Stangelo have both been working hard around the district — Hulse at NCMS and Stangelo at Northwood Elementary, both as teachers before moving to their new assistant principal positions at NCMS [Hulse] and North Canton Intermediate School [Stangelo]. They have learned many things over the years working as teachers that they use greatly in their new positions,
“Teaching at NCMS allowed me to get a solid understanding of the classroom experience at the middle school,” Hulse said. “I believe this will help me as I assist teachers, students, and families with various challenges that we
encounter.”
The prior experiences help know the inner workings of the classroom, not just seeing things from an outsider’s point-of-view. Having personal knowledge of the way things run, Hulse can now help spread that helpful knowledge to
all teachers, parents, and students.
“As a principal you are responsible for the entire building, so you must maintain a much broader perspective on everything that takes place in the school,” he said.
No longer just being in charge of a single classroom, and now having to oversee everything happening in one building, is a huge change. The new role these two are in call for some adjustments.
“We love it here at NCIS but we had a lot to figure out,” Stangelo said.
The school year is underway and these individuals are settling into their new positions and can’t wait for an amazing school year.
“I love walking the halls and catching students following our school-wide expectations,” Stangelo said.
