The Register sat down with Brian McDonnell on his final of teaching to discuss his time as a member of the BHS faculty and sports program.

What have you learned about yourself while teaching?

“[I’ve learned that] so much of teaching is not about you, it’s about helping the class and helping the students… and it’s really cool that in school and in teaching you are helping so many other people attain goals they didn’t even realize are possible.”

What is your favorite part about coaching BHS cross country and track?

“[My favorite part is] seeing people improve and have them do well… I think it creates really good habits. It’s not an accident that a lot of the track and cross country kids are also really good students. It’s a really good group of kids, and I think that the habits that we practice also make good humans.”

How long have you been at BHS?

“I’ve been at BHS for six years and then kind of started with the social studies department. I’ve been teaching Civics and I’ve also done a few different classes here, but most recently, and most commonly, the Civics and Economics.”

What good memories come to mind of being a teacher here?

“I was also really glad they started the student government, and that student government is legitimate this year. That was something that kind of just came out of the blue.
I went into [student government] and thought ‘what do the kids want to do?’ I thought we were gonna work on soundproofing the school or something easy, but the kids wanted to put together a whole student government, and they put it all together and now we have one.”

Is there a moment that sticks out to you while coaching?

“The first one that comes to mind is the girls getting their first Division I State Championship last year and that was a really cool culminating moment.”

What’s the reason for you leaving?

“We know that there are more job opportunities outside of Vermont. When you look at moving closer to a city where there are opportunities for growth, for me personally, …if you’re gonna be putting in 50- 60-70 hours of work a week [you should] make sure that you are maximizing your ability to grow as an individual.”

What do you hope for the future of BHS?

“I think we have a very, very bright future here. Of course, it’s easy to start looking ahead to the new school, realistically the school is already way better than it was last year. If you look around there’s a lot of young, really talented teachers that are going to make this school very, very strong in the future years.”

“Macy’s kids are going to continue to do well academically and athletically and with all the extracurriculars BHS offers. We have great teachers, great students [and] great opportunities. I think the school is in a very, very good spot.”