After teaching seventh grade at Aubry Bend for eight years, English teacher Liz Johnson decided to apply for a position at Southwest. 

Johnson said she has always wanted to try teaching high school but was sad to leave Aubry Bend and the connections she made there.

“I love Aubry Bend and am going to miss it and the people,” Johnson said. “The people [are] what make a place great.”

Although it was a tough decision to leave, Johnson said the switch has been good so far and enjoys having familiar faces in class.

“[The transition] has been really great,” Johnson said. “It’s been awesome [already] knowing most of you guys here and getting to know you [all] as high schoolers, which has been so fun.”

One familiar face for Johnson is sophomore Chesnee Busch. Busch had Johnson in seventh grade for Flex class and now has her for honors ELA 10. Busch said she enjoyed the class and liked having Johnson as a teacher in middle school.

“The class was really fun,” Busch said. “[Johnson] was always energetic and was like a breath of fresh air for everyone in the class.”

Busch said they initially bonded over their shared book interests.

“When I had her in middle school, I got really close to her because I would always talk to her about [books],” Busch said. “She was just always a good person to talk to, about anything.”

Johnson said she enjoyed having Busch for Flex because she feels she got to know her personally first.

“I think our relationship is so cool because I had her just in Flex, so I’ve gotten to know her as a person, but now I get to know her also as a student,” Johnson said. 

Since having Busch as a student three years prior, Johnson said their relationship has evolved and it’s fun to see how much Busch has grown as a person. Busch said she was excited to find out she would have Johnson as a teacher again and was looking forward to it.

“I was really excited and it made my day,” Busch said. “I think she’s a fun teacher and always bubbly, really cares about her students and is very good at understanding teenagers.”

Even though Johnson is in a new building, she still has a few of the same coworkers from the past. Johnson and librarian Jessica Jurkovac met in 2020 while working on a novel approval committee when Johnson was teaching at Aubry Bend and Jurkovac was at Lakewood Middle School teaching seventh grade English and social studies. 

“[Johnson and I] worked together to get the district to approve for seventh grade to be able to read ‘The Hunger Games,’” Jurkovac said.

After working on the committee together for a year, they became colleagues at Aubry Bend, where they worked together for three years before Jurkovac moved to Southwest. Johnson said she is looking forward to working with Jurkovac again and would love to involve her classes with the library this year.

“I think there’s so many strong skills that can transfer over from the library into ELA, so I’d love to work with them,” Johnson said. “I know that Ms. Jurkovac is willing to help and we hope to [work together] at least once a month.”

Jurkovac said she and Johnson have become close friends since initially working together, and was excited for Johnson to apply for the position at Southwest.

“The more time we spent together, the more we realized we had in common, and we started hanging out outside of school,” Jurkovac said. “As soon as I knew there was an ELA position open, I texted [Johnson] and knew she was going to apply. I knew that she would love it here and be a good addition to the ELA team, and she had been wanting to teach sophomore English, so I was really excited for her.”

Johnson said she is happy to be in the same building as Jurkovac again, and enjoys working with her.

“I think the best part of working with [Jurkovac] is her personality and relationship with the kids. She knows kids individually as people but also as students, so she knows what they need and how to help them,” Johnson said. “Working together [has] been great because we know each other so well that we know what the other needs and what to expect from the other.”

Jurkovac agreed and said she looks forward to working with Johnson and is excited for this year.

“As a librarian, I was excited to have her here because I knew she would want to work with the library and bring her classes in and collaborate with us,” Jurkovac said. “My favorite part about working with Ms. Johnson is the excitement and energy that she brings into the classroom.”