With the beginning of the semester in full swing, students have familiarized themselves with their various teachers. Every year, there’s additions to the staff. However, students are seeing more new faces than usual on campus as there are more than 30 new staff members this year.

There can be a variety of reasons for the turnover, but for some teachers, leaving campus can be explained by once-in-a-lifetime chances that some teachers faced.

“One of our teachers (Travis McNair) got a great opportunity in China,” assistant principal Stacey Whaling said. “So usually there are really good reasons that a teacher would leave our campus because our retention is really good. Every once in awhile, an awesome opportunity opens up and they can’t pass it up.”

Regardless, the criteria that new hires have to meet is all the same according to Whaling.

“The biggest thing is that their hearts are in the right place and that they love kids,” Whaling said “So that’s number one. Great content knowledge- we definitely want that for sure. And then just that they will fit in well with the Liberty culture.”

One of the new teachers this year is PreAP English II and AP Literature teacher Joshua Melton, who chose to teach here for certain reasons.

“I have a friend who also teaches in the district and she’s told me what an amazing district it is, how much support you get, how much autonomy you have to teach the things that you want to teach,” Melton said. “Frisco’s just really great about kind of giving you the space to express yourself.”

However, the campus is not a new sight to Melton.

“All the kids are amazing,” Melton said. “I was with Ms. Whaling in AP Lit last year during my student teaching. And everyone was just so smart and engaged in class and had so much to say and there were really rich discussions. So the culture of academia here is really appealing.”

Despite the engaging environment, there are some downsides that come with teaching full time.

“I’m not looking forward to all the grading, especially since I’m teaching AP Lit,” Melton said. “That’s a lot of essays to grade. Grading, and being able to effectively answer all of my students’ questions to the level they need to excel in the subject.”

Sophomore Iris Chang had mixed feelings about an unfamiliar name on her schedule at first.

“Well I didn’t really know what to expect because I couldn’t ask people in older grades what kind of a teacher he is,” Chang said. “But he’s pretty cool.”

Both students and the administration are enthusiastic about the new staff.

“They are all eager, excited, they have a zest for kids and an excitement about their content,” Whaling said. “So we’re really excited about it.”

Likewise, members of the new staff look forward to the rest of the school year.

“I really hope that I can carve out my niche here,” Melton said. “Working with all the people is really great but I hope I can bring as much as possible to the table in regards to planning and working with other people and sharing my ideas. I hope that comes across to the students as well. To teach them as much as possible and really pass on my passion for literature and English to them and for them to understand how awesome it is.”