A new face has joined the OH Panther team: meet new dean, Spencer Brown, who is already feeling the family nature of OH.
“Y’know, I just wanna say that everybody has been so genuinely nice, as I’ve gotten to know people,” Brown said. “I’ve never been in a space where so many kids say ‘Good morning’ back when I say ‘Good morning,’ or so many adults are eager to say ‘Hello’ as well.”
“It’s just been so welcoming, and it’s just made me feel like I belong. So I’m just very thankful to everybody,” he added.
The OH Deans team is happy to welcome Brown, too. “He comes to us with a wealth of knowledge from previous experiences,” said OH Dean Ryan Kabara, expressing his excitement that Brown has joined the four other deans at OH after Lynn Wingard resigned at the end of the ’24-25 academic year.
Now a dean at OH, Brown has come a long way from his previous role as a middle school and alternative education teacher.
“When I first taught, I was actually in [an international school in] Honduras,” Brown said. Although all of his students spoke English, he took the job to learn Spanish, and “that went okay,” he added. “In that first teaching experience, I taught English and social studies to sixth graders, [and] that was a blast.”
After teaching in Honduras, Brown returned to the United States to teach “at an alternative program in Michigan for middle school students that were kicked out of school… I kinda fell in love with… alternative [education],” Brown said.
Alternative programs, like the one Brown experienced in Michigan and the SD308 alternative education G.O.A.L. program, teach students in an alternative learning environment beyond the traditional school setting; attendance there is sometimes due to need for increased behavior support, something that deans try to prevent students from needing.
After moving to Illinois, Brown finally found himself applying to OH to become a dean. “When I first moved to Illinois, I think it was my wife’s mom [who] mentioned, ‘You should look at Oswego, it’s a great district!’ and for some reason, I knew nothing about any of the schools here, or any of the communities really… it just kinda stuck out as a beacon in my mind, like ‘Oh, that’s my dream job!'” Brown recalled.
“So [when] an opportunity arose, I applied, and finally got in,” he added. “I’m feeling really lucky to be here.” Brown hopes to shed some light on what deans do and why they are important as a bridge between school and the real world.
“It’s hard to give consequences,” Brown said,”but I would much rather have that impact on a kid in this moment, and hopefully they can learn from [the experience] and not make that mistake later,” he added.
Many students are anxious to see what Brown will be like in his new role at OH and have their own hopes for him, too.
“I hope he actively fulfills his role and improves student welfare,” said OH senior Ronan Ludvigsen.
Brown hopes to be more than just an enforcer of consequences, though, and wants to become a pillar of the community.
“That’ll just be a dream if I could be a trusted person in the community,” said Brown.
My name is Monaco Tiffany. I am a senior at Oswego High School and Oswego East High School. This is my second year as part of 42Fifty. I am serving as one of the Managing Editors for 42Fifty. I am involved in the frc robotics team 2338 Gear It Forward.
You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication
My name is Aster Lasher & I am a Senior at OHS
I use Any/All pronouns
I'm interested in horror, gaming, and various animated series, namely One Piece. I'm in D&D club and participate outside of school too!
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