After many years at Clover Hill’s silver and blue rival, former math teacher Christopher Szybisty finds himself back at the Hill for the 2023-2024 school year as the new Associate Principal.
Christopher Szybisty (pronounced Sh-biz-tee) is no stranger to education. After obtaining a degree in mathematics at Eastern Michigan University, Szybisty came to the state of Virginia to pursue a career in teaching math. For five years, Szybisty was a mathematics teacher and department chair at Matoaca High School, as well as a math teacher at Clover Hill High School for two years. Szybisty then went on to work at Cosby High School as the dean of students for two years and the assistant principal for five years. After leaving Cosby High School, Szybisty returned to Clover Hill.
“A number of different things [lead to his return],” Szybisty said. “It was just a great school, it checked off a lot of boxes. It’s close to my home, great kids [and] great course offerings. It really gives me a chance to take risks in my career.”
Szybisty is no stranger to risks. As an associate principal, Szybisty’s day is unpredictable. An associate principal carries more or less the same roles as an assistant principal. What sets an associate principal apart is that if the principal was absent for some reason, they would be one in charge. Challenges and conflict may arise, but Szybisty must be prepared to skillfully handle whatever may come up, especially when he steps into the role of a principal.
“In this building, we have myself as the associate principal, Roscoe Johnson and Cherel White who are assistant principals and then you have Hope Collins who is the Dean of Students. Functionally, we all carry more or less the same responsibilities, and you can think of us all as assistant principals,” Szybisty said. ”The big difference is that if something were to happen to John Phillips [the school principal], or he is not in the building [or] in a meeting, I am the one that is identified as the principal for that day.”
Szybisty strives to build long-lasting relationships with his students but acknowledges the limited opportunities to reach them.
“One of the things that are the same [in regards to all faculty positions] is that you have to be able to build relationships with students,” Szybisty said. “And sometimes the only time I get to build a relationship with a student is when they’re in my office, and they’re in trouble.”
Although building relationships with students may be hard, it is not impossible. Szybisty believes the most rewarding part of being an educator is being able to see first hand how their hard work pays off. Watching students graduate solidifies that their hard work pays off in the end.
“Graduation is easily my favorite time of year,” Szybisty said. “Graduation is the one day where we celebrate four years of hard work to get you across the stage.”
Szybisty is happy to be back to The Hill and is dedicated to helping our students and teachers thrive in the classroom to ensure a smoothly run school year.
“What I want to be able to do is help Clover Hill to run as optimally as possible,” Szybisty said. “Because when we run as optimally as possible, our teachers are able to create a magic that they are trained to do and that they want to do in the classroom.”
