On May 1, Kevin Christie joined the teaching staff due to a unique situation. Following the loss of beloved social studies teacher Justin Rosenblad, Christie filed for an emergency license which allowed him to move from student teaching with BJ Basinski, to teaching on his own.

For the past two years, Christie has been taking night classes in pursuit of his Master’s degree. Once this semester finishes, he will have his degree and be done with student teaching.

He will be applying for the permanent position as a social studies teacher. “I’m excited for this oppurtunity for me, but it’s this weird balance of emotions from the grief,” said Christie, who was friends with Rosenblad.  “It’s a sad situation,” he said.  “We all miss him.”

Christie says that the students have had an overall good reaction to him. “It depends on the class, but I feel like we are starting to settle in,” he said. He considers himself to have a different structure than Rosenblad had, but says the kids are adjusting  well due to them being used to having a new sub every week.

Many may previously recognize Christie from his position as the head coach for baseball, and he worked as security for the last couple of years in the Centennial halls. Also, he joins the long list of Centennial alumni, graduating in the class of 2004.

Going from security to teacher has been a positive change for Christie. In his classroom now, many do not recognize him due to the students predominantly being underclassmen. When he was student teaching in Basinski’s classroom there were more upperclassmen and Christie found himself in a few situations where a kid did recognize him, but it was not a positive memory. “We made the adjustment,” said Christie, “but the initial ‘second look’ was sometimes there.”

As for Rosenblad’s tarantula, Charlie, he’s still living in room 13, Christie plans on keeping him for the rest of the year, but for the summer, he has no idea what to do with it.

“He’s just hanging out,” said Christie.