Ms. Kelly Helm is, without a doubt, a multifaceted, dedicated individual. One of our new Assistant Principals, she is, arguably, the best person for the job. As a former Eaglecrest teacher, an experienced administrator, and a friend of both Mr. Snyder and Mr. Roome, Helm sports an impressive resume.
“I started teaching here in 2003,” Helm said. “I was a speech and debate coach my first few years here. And then actually I did all sorts of things here: I became performing arts coordinator, I was running student leadership and I was teaching dance.” Taking on a wide variety of roles, Helm excelled at each one, simultaneously gaining valuable perspectives. Now, coming back, she is more than prepared.
“I've had the privilege of having been a core teacher, an elective teacher, the activities director and now coming back as an assistant principal, it's fun to be back after being gone for a few years.” This will be her fifth year as an assistant principal; before Eaglecrest, she was an A.P. at both West Middle School and Laredo Middle School.
“I just think that the bigger change is probably just making the move from middle school to high school: the culture is just different,” Helm said. She noted that many pieces of her role remain the same. She is still a leader in both the school and the community, and still oversees different instructional programming, including the English, AVID, and A.P. programs. But beyond the administrative role requirements, Helm is sure to emphasize that to her, the school’s students and teachers are her priority.
“I think that it’s really important to connect with students, after school and extracurricularly in addition to their academics,” Helm said, acknowledging that students do, in fact, have lives outside of Eaglecrest and academics. In fact, that’s part of what makes her role important to her.
“My most favorite thing about being an administrator...is to see what you do when you leave here,” Helm explained, reminiscing fondly about past students. “Because of being an AP and being out in the halls for hallway duty or tardy station or being at games, you get to know students in a different way.” She says she enjoys seeing students finding their passions and pursuing things that they may want to continue as a career --or just a hobby. The foundation of a high school, the students are a big part of what drives the culture and spirit of the school, and Ms. Helm seems determined to foster positive experiences for students. Another notable piece of school culture? Our teachers.
“The teachers here at Eaglecrest are amazing and I have loved connecting with all of them,” said Helm. “I love being their colleagues, and I love figuring out ways to support them and giving them opportunities to grow.” As a former Eaglecrest teacher herself, Helm may perhaps be more empathetic to their cause than most.
In her new role as A.P, Helm has a big job, particularly coming out of the past year. The pandemic --and subsequent barrage of unique changes and challenges-- created an atmosphere of uncertainty that cannot be ignored. The question of ‘where do we go from here?’ looms large in the minds of many. Helm, though she herself acknowledges that she does not hold all the answers, has a plan.
“First of all, I think that one thing that I've heard over and over again is that we need to somehow make up for lost time,” Helm said. “And I think we need to let go of that idea.” Having just gone through the kind of pressure and drastic changes we all did in the past year, there is no “going back to normal”; rather, it’s about finding a new normal.
“We need to kind of take what we've learned from that I think and figure out what that means to be a Raptor moving forward,” added Helm. “To pretend like we could have the same goals that we had from two years ago would be silly.” Readjusting and reevaluating are her focus at the moment. Still, she took a moment to applaud the student body.
“You are the most flexible, adaptable group of students that I think I've ever interacted with,” said Helm. Because of that, she is sure to clarify that she is not necessarily interested in bringing things back, but rather in figuring out who we are --as a school, community, and even as individuals-- as the pandemic settles.
“All the things that we were proud of and that we celebrated before...how we can continue to connect to those?” propounded Helm. “But I always think it’s important to identify things we can grow in too.” One such thing we can work on, she pointed out, is slowing down. Our pace of life, like so much else, dramatically changed with the onset of the pandemic --but it didn’t stay that way.
“The second that we could be in person and take off our masks, it was like, ‘Let's hit the ground running’,” Helm said. “And now we're back to being full speed ahead again and now we're back to staying up again until midnight or 1am doing homework. And I think we need to take care of the social-emotional pieces of your development as well as the academics.” Helm speaks to the pressure she feels lies on current middle and high schoolers shoulders, worrying about how it manifests as increased anxiety and social-emotional challenges. Mental health --and addressing those social-emotional challenges-- is crucial to a successful, sustainable lifestyle, in school and out of school. Striking a balance between the individual and academics is something Helm values. Teachers, of course, play a significant role in finding that balance.
“I think that there's a balance that we can have and your teachers right now are doing a lot of work in learning about grading practices and what's best practices with homework and things like that,” noted Helm. Part of the rebuilding and readjusting Helm is promoting, the work teachers are doing now after a year of changing schedules and expectations, is undeniably integral to our growth as a school. Of course, it’s not going to be all smooth sailing. But as a school --and with the help of Helm’s leadership--, it can be done.
