English teacher, Glenn Seland is the department chair for the English department.

“I have an administrative certificate and an interest in the larger picture of school,” Seland said. “I also like to help other people succeed. By putting those two things together, the department chair position naturally fit.”

Some responsibilities of being department chair are interviewing new candidates, scheduling teachers and courses for the next year, acting as a liaison between administration and teaching staff, observing teachers in the classroom, evaluating and meeting needs within the department, mentoring new teachers and working with the central office and the other high school to make important curriculum decisions.

Performing arts teacher, Matt Rund applied for the department chair position when he first came to FHS. Just like academic classes are different than performing arts in many ways, the responsibilities of a performing arts department chair are also slightly different than a core class’s department chair. As part of being department chair, he is a mentor, bookkeeper, auditorium director, evaluator, calendar maker, and anything else the department needs him to do.

“We in the performing arts department are lucky that we have a more active class than most other subjects,” Rund said. “It is innate to our subject. Our students have to perform to show us that they have learned. They can’t just take a test.”

Rund and Seland have both won the FHS Teacher of the Year award.