Author Spotlight
Vanessa Blades
This school year, East gained two new associate principals to their office staff, Tara Mahoney and Anna Thiele.
Though they are familiar faces— Mahoney as Indian Hills Middle School’s former associate principal and Thiele with her six years teaching under East’s Spanish department, both have experienced learning curves and have helped each other adapt to their new positions.
According to Mahoney, some challenging aspects while adapting to East so far include figuring out how the building operates, how to collaborate with the student service team, the bell systems and mastering schedules. While these were areas she already knew about from her time at Indian Hills, She was use to her daily routine
For Mahoney, the jump from Indian Hills to East has been challenging, yet everything she’s wanted all at the same time. According to Mahoney, it took her some time to get used to her new routine. However, she quickly fit right in.
“While walking through the hallways, I definitely had to get used to everyone being taller than me,” Mahoney said. “But it’s really great to see the kids I had three years ago and I’m like, Oh my gosh, you look completely different and grown up.””
Fortunately, working at Indian Hills gave Mahoney plenty of opportunities to work with people around the district, such as East staff members like Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Peres and Mr. Barikmo.
Thiele knew she wanted to be in an administration role since college but never knew when the right time was. After having her son and completing her 11th year of teaching Spanish, she knew it was time to move on.
While Thiele has years of East experience under her belt, she knew that joining the office staff would provide its own challenges — but these didn’t stop her from achieving her long-term goal of being in office.
After stepping into her new role, she already had a little training with her undergraduate degree, but her main help came from her fellow associate principals, Mr Barikmo and Mrs. Mahoney.
“Working with Peres now I’m definitely starting to see more of his personality but he’s very helpful along with Mrs. Mahoney and Mr. Barikmo,” Dr. Thiele said. “If I have any questions I can always ask them.”
One of the hardest things for Dr. Thiele was learning how to balance family and work. When she first started, she would go home with hours of work left. She also struggled with wanting to be present with her family and spend the last hours of the day with them.
“I had to tell myself ok, it’s time to stop, work will be there tomorrow, family won’t.” Thiele said
Both Thiele and Mahoney have similar goals to interact with students and support them throughout high school. According to Mrs. Mahoney and Dr. Thiele Just seeing students in classrooms and in the hallways fulfills them.
With both their new roles, they’ve been leaning on one another and other office workers on how to navigate and improve their jobs.
“When applying for the job, the goal is to find who has the most potential and who is the best fit for each school,” Peres said. “Mahoney and Thiele are doing just that, they are fitting right into the office atmosphere and the East culture.”
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