Turning the Boat

SHINE. Ms. Kovacs smiling towards the camera during lunch. Ms. Kovacs is always around VHS answering questions or giving compliments. Her smile and presence will be greatly missed when she leaves at the end of the year. Photo courtesy of Larkin Geisinger. 

Sabrina Kovacs, the assistant principal of VHS is leaving the home of the pirates at the end of the year to board another boat. A boat of risk and opportunity. 

Ms. Kovacs has been all over the teaching field. She started from the world of desks and raised hands as a classroom teacher for 15 years. Her teaching has spanned from story times with the second graders to fifth graders with their endless stream of curiosities. As her years of experience started to grow, she began to look for change. She took a new route of being an administrator, working as a district coordinator at Seattle Public Schools. This meant that she and a couple of others were in charge of training all the teachers in the district. 

“Seattle public has 105 schools. It is a very big job,” Ms. Kovacs added when talking about her experience at Seattle.

She loved the large district but wanted to try something different. Somewhere across the water there was a district made of three schools: an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. She knew just what shift she needed to make. From 105 schools to less than five, Ms. Kovacs has been the assistant principal at VHS for almost three years. 

Ms. Kovacs’s leadership has impacted students and staff that call VHS their home. 

“I feel a lot safer at the school and I feel like she takes a lot of action in stuff,” freshman Runa Hartwell said when explaining her experience as a student at VHS. 

One of the actions that Ms. Kovacs has implemented is new policies around drug use and vaping. According to students, these new policies have been effective and needed. 

“I’ve seen her do a lot of things about the drug problems happening in our school district. I remember in middle school, they definitely tried to bring it down but kind of to no avail. I feel like the number of kids that are vaping and doing drugs at our school has really gone down,” freshman Hartwell said when discussing the levels of drug use at our school and the impact that Ms. Kovacs has made on these numbers. 

While many think that the policies have been effective, others think that promotion of prevention over punishment is the best approach. 

“I prefer the idea of educating people rather than, like, straight up punishing. I think we should work to prevent it instead of working to punish it,” sophomore Emmalyn Werner added. 

Either way, making sure that drug use and vaping isn’t occurring in our schools is very important. Not only because of the health and safety of the user, but also because of the school’s overall safety. Ms. Kovacs’s guidance has helped to keep students safe and learning. 

Ms. Kovacs’s constant teachings has helped to shape the school’s teachers and staff into the best they can be. 

“[As a new teacher] I’ve gone to her a lot and said ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ And she’s always had really good advice and has really helped me think about how to become a better teacher,” health teacher Dr. HansPetersen said.

Ms. Kovacs has created many systems to keep VHS running smoothly and efficiently. She implemented a system for cleaning up after lunch and introduced freshman student-lead conferences. 

A huge part of our community are Spanish speakers, including Ms. Kovacs. She is fluent in both English and Spanish. 

Her linguistic range has been “a huge asset to our school,” junior Neko Rogneby said. 

Ms. Kovacs has been able to connect with students in ways that most cannot.

She is someone that students always see in the halls and lunchroom. She always makes an effort to engage and talk with students. 

“I think it will be weird not to see her in the hallways, because she always makes small talk with me and compliments my outfits. I appreciate that she makes small talk with students and I think having adults do that in a school setting is really important,” sophomore Emmalyn Werner said. 

Ms. Kovacs’s job of enforcing rules and systems can be unappreciated, but it is an important job nonetheless.

“The role of the vice principal is one that doesn’t always lend itself to praise, but it is one that is necessary,” senior Henry Cooper added. 

Ms. Kovacs has done so much in the few years she has spent here. She has brought her teaching experience into her job to help the teachers be the best they can be, has constructed systems from the ground up, and has always been a smiling face that students can talk to. Ms. Kovacs will be leaving at the end of the year to start a business that she has been interested in pursuing. Although the students and staff at VHS will be sad to see her go, it is certain that she will bring her strong leadership and enthusiasm into the next chapter of her life.