The Carterville school district is growing which means there is a need for more and more teachers. CHS is happy to welcome four new teachers to the staff this school year: Matt Crain, Andrew Nash, Caleb Swartz, and Jon Wilheim. 

You might see a friendly new face (that looks particularly like senior Abbey Crain) in your P.E or Drivers Ed classes with the new addition of Matt Crain to the CHS staff. With the district growing exponentially, CHS was in need of an additional Drivers Ed teacher to help students receive their driver’s licenses on time. When asked about his first few weeks at CHS, Crain exclaimed, “I was familiar with some of the students from coaching, but everyone here has been very welcoming towards me”. 

The CHS Pride of the Lions band is under new direction with the welcoming of Andrew Nash to the CHS staff. Nash is the new band director and has started the school year before most of the teachers due to the two weeks of band camp prior to the school year starting. You can catch him under the Friday night lights with the band at home football games and at marching competitions almost every Saturday this fall. 

As our new Assistant Vice Principal, Sarah Tyner moved up through the ranks, CHS was in need of a new math teacher, deeming Jon Wilhelm to be the newest face of the math department. You might see him in class if you are enrolled in Contemporary Math, Algebra 1, or Geometry. When asked how/why he wanted the position here at CHS, he replied by saying, ”I live here in Carterville and I love the community, I was excited about the kids and the staff, and having a positive effect on the school.” Fun facts about Wilhelm would be that he has twin boys in the fourth grade and his wife is a law professor at SIU. 

Last but not least, the final addition to the CHS staff this school year is science teacher Caleb Swartz. The area of science Swartz teaches at the high school is Physical Science. Swartz moved to Carterville from Tennessee and was looking for a good teaching position at a good school. When asked about his favorite memory so far this year, he responded by saying, “We were doing a motion lab in class and a student got so caught up in the lab that she said a bad word.” Interesting facts that may surprise students would be that he worked for two summers in Yellowstone National Park and ran Cross Country and Track in college.

Carterville High School has enthusiastically welcomed these teachers, and we are extremely excited to see what sorts of talents they bring to the CHS staff as the year moves on. To the teachers, welcome to the Pride!