This year, the school has had some changes. One of them was a new teacher and staff member, Jennifer Martin. Martin is a geometry and algebra III teacher at FHN, but North isn’t the only place she has taught. Martin has taught at three schools before this one, and has taught everything from pre-algebra to pre-calculus.

“For the last five years, I’ve been at Francis Howell Central,” Martin said. “Before that, I worked for a couple years up in Winfield at their high school. And prior to that I was born and raised in Minnesota. There I worked for five years at Shakopee Junior High.” 

Freshman Kevin Smith is one of Martin’s students, in her second hour geometry class. Though math doesn’t intrigue him, he enjoys Martin’s class because of her personality.

“She’s a little over the place,” Smith said. “I think she’s a little hyper, if that makes sense. You know, ADHD, one might say. We actually discussed, like for six minutes, coffee.” 

Another student from Martin’s second hour class is Melissa Perez. She’s a sophomore who does enjoy math. 

“Compared to other teachers I feel like I can learn. I can understand math better from Martin than from other teachers. She makes me visualize the math in my head. Like, what the shapes are, the geometry. I see the shapes in my head and I could count them,” Perez said.

When Martin was let go from Francis Howell Central, she was hurt. At first Martin felt pessimistic about switching schools because she knew almost all the students there since she had been there for a while, but she came around after meeting the students and staff at FHN

“Well, at first I was very hurt [by being cut from the school],” Martin said. “I was upset because Central was my home. I knew almost every kid in the entire school. I was very negative about it at first, but honestly after coming here and seeing all the staff and the kids it’s completely changed my mind. I know Dr. Hostetler, he’s the main reason why I feel comfortable being here, he reached out to me as soon as I found out I lost my job, and it just honestly changed my viewpoint, and it made me feel excited to be here.”