By Hannah Henick ’16 and Liz Cornman ’16, Staff Writers

As this school year comes to a close, many beloved members of the Newark Academy faculty and staff will be moving on to exciting new opportunities. Before we say goodbye to math teacher Mr. Blaskopf, Mr. Harris and Mr. Scott from the technology office, and English teacher Mr. Griffin, we interviewed them to find out some of their favorite moments as part of the Newark Academy community, to hear about their future plans, and to get answers to some of the questions we’ve always wanted to ask.

 Mr. Blaskopf

How long have you been working at NA?

I’ve been at Newark Academy for 40 years and I’ve been teaching for 45.

What has been the best part of working here?

Honestly I love being in the classroom. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to be a teacher since 9^th grade and that’s what I did.

What is your best memory from teaching here?

That’s a tough one, especially when you’ve been teaching here for 40 years. There are a lot of good feelings. Some students you can tell appreciate what you’re doing. Getting positive feedback, it just feels good.

What brought on your affinity for ferrets?

Haha, well, when my girls were 10 or so they wanted pets, and my wife’s allergic to cats, and of course then they said “oh can we get a dog can we get a dog?” I’m not that big of an animal person and I knew that if we got a dog I’d be the one feeding it and walking it. We did some research and found that ferrets live up to 10 to 12 years and you can keep them boxed up most of the time. The longest one we ever had was 6 and a half years, which was sad because we kept burying them. They just needed a mammal because fish and turtles were too yucky.

What is your favorite grade to teach?

This might annoy some people, but my favorite grade to teach has always been sixth graders because they’re so excited to learn. I also like tenth graders because they mature so much from September to May; they go from punk ninth graders to mature eleventh graders. There’s also less college stress for them. But sixth graders are my favorite because they have so much enthusiasm.

Mr. Harris:

What’s your favorite part about working here?

My favorite part about working here is that I get to work with an amazing group of faculty, staff, and administration on a consistent basis and see their improvement over time. Before I came to Newark Academy, I used to work at Apple Computers, and you see those people sporadically – and you would always see those people come back every now and again but here, with the community we have, I get to actually see the progression, see them improve with technology, see them use technology more in the classroom over a period of time.

And how long have you been working here?

8 years.

What will you miss the most?

I think Newark Academy’s culture and community – the people that actually make it. It’s very tough to say what I am going to miss the most because there are so many aspects of the school. I’m going to miss the arts department for all of their creative projects they’ve given me over the years. I’m going to miss the Board of Trustee meetings where they have me helping out everybody and talking to them and seeing what they are going to do to move the school forward. I’m going to miss, you know, pretty much the school, in general.  I’ve had a lot of memories here and it was a very difficult decision for me to go.

What’s next?

What’s on the horizon for me is that I started my own consulting company years ago and had an idea how to help improve public education through technology – and integrate it in a much wiser and more feasible fashion, considering all of the budget cuts that have happened throughout the nation, within education. What my company does, is basically takes a school district’s budget plan and completely, from start to finish, integrate all their technology, to achieve state standards.

Do you have a “That’s so Newark Academy” moment?

The wrestlers actually questioned why I’m making them do certain types of training, instead of just going ahead and doing it! Regardless of my accolades and what I have done as a coach, they would ask, “Well, Mr. Harris, can’t we do this? It’s kind of the same thing,” but it wasn’t as hard obviously!

Mr. Scott:

(It is important to note that Mr. Scott ate Welch’s Fruit Snacks in the hallway as we interviewed him. He refused to share them with us.)

What’s your favorite part about working here?

The many growth opportunities. I started working here when I was 23, and 13 years later I’ve grown so much because of working in this atmosphere.

So, I guess that answers the question of how long you’ve been here.

Yeah, wow, 13 years.

Proudest moment?

I would have to say our summer bridge program, which gives our students the opportunity to hit the ground running here at NA. This is a rigorous environment; the challenges often exceed what we see on a daily basis. I think that is one of the things I will leave behind.

Not to mention, the way faculty embrace technology. We have come so far with technology- the fact that we have Canvas, I have a great team – it’s so great to see as a tech director, when technology is used in full force.

So what’s next?

I’m going to work at the Nightingale-Bamford School in the city, on the Upper East Side. I will be overseeing technology, while working in conjunction with the finance officer, the operations office, and facility planning. So it’s going to be a challenge for me; I’m walking into a new environment. My role is to really try to bring my expertise to the table and do what I did here on a new level, in terms of working with technology, curriculum planning (which I’ve never done before) and a whole new crazy staff. But none of that would have happened unless Newark Academy allowed me to grow in ways I couldn’t imagine. I started so young; I got my Master’s here, Certification here, and I’m now finishing up my MBA. This will be a bittersweet moment when the day comes, but at the end of the day, I think we’re both proud to have seen each other grow. [The school] has grown and I have grown.

Mr. Griffin:

What has been your favorite part of teaching here?

I’d have to say the relationships you get to have with students has been amazing and getting to know so many students over the past seven years.

What has been your proudest moment as a Newark Academy teacher?

Ummm… Walking in the door here in the first place!

What would you say your best memory is?

Reading “Scaredy Squirrel” to my classes every year is definitely a highlight. And in the fields…. beating my brother’s baseball team. He teaches at Peck.

What are your plans for the future?

So next year I will be teaching English at Winsor in Boston, which is not far from where my parents live and a lot of other family, so that’s the next step.

So in your professional opinion would you say that the current sophomore class is the best grade you ever taught?

The best grade that’s ever existed in the history of ever!

We’re sure we can speak for the school when we say we’ll miss all of these amazing people, and we hope they’ll come back and visit soon!