New assistant principal Johnston finds upside to COVID-19

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Heath Johnston

Assistant principal Heath Johnston in his new office at the high school.

From online classes to the cancelled sports season, Covid-19 has had it’s impact on students everywhere. However it’s also had an impact on the staff here too. One of the new assistant principals, Heath Johnston, shares how he has been handling Covid-19 in his personal and professional life.

“[During Covid-19] I’ve had time to do a lot more cooking, which I enjoy. Since I’ve been around the house a lot more, I generally do the most cooking,” Johnston said. 

During the pandemic he’s been trying out a lot of new recipes such as a pasta sauce made from scratch inspired by Audrey Hepburn.

The job of being an assistant principal while schools are online is very different from a regular school environment.

“The biggest thing that I [have] to do is helping gather up materials. Usually the kids are in person [and you’re] handing out things in classes. [Also,] the whole canvas thing with teachers has been new to them. They’ve been learning what to do, how to set it up and how to teach from home,” Johnston said. “[This year I’m trying to focus a lot] on maintaining communication with the students and the parents because [since I’m] not seeing people here every day [there is] a lot of emails, phone calls, keeping in touch. It’s a different form of communication. We can pop into the classrooms virtually,” Johnston said.

Covid-19 has affected everyone in many different ways. Johnstons job has become a lot more difficult because of virtual learning. Reaching out to students and parents has been difficult for him because everything is through emails, phone calls, etc. While Johnston has encountered difficulties with every aspect of online school, he also found positives along the way. There’s also a positive side to Covid for Johnston, he’s spent more time at home cooking and spending time with his family.