As the first bell of the school year rings, new faces flood the halls. Large posters hang from the walls with the letter of the hallway scribbled onto them in black, bold marker. Loud chatter bounces against the walls as kids reunite with their friends, excitedly sharing tales of their summer vacations.

Flashes of red can be seen from every angle as students squint down at their firetruck red papered schedules. From every way freshmen scramble to find their classes, darting through the crowds with their friends right behind them, and new teachers wait for their first class at the high school to begin.

“I’ve been here a week, teaching classes, but I have to say that I really feel at home here,” tech theatre teacher Tim Doyle said. “I was telling my wife after I’d started the new teacher training and service process before classes actually got started, that I really felt like I belonged at Lovejoy.”

Doyle has been teaching theater for seven years and is excited to spend his eighth year at LHS. He said he was ready to get to know more of the kids and bond with them.

“At some of those other places I felt like I was really making a difference and making an impact on students’ lives, but some days were challenging,” Doyle said. “I know that there’ll be challenging days here as well, but it’s so fresh and so new that I’m really having a great time and enjoying it. It’s great, I mean I’m really enjoying it.”

While some teachers have to adjust on their own, this is not the case for sophomore English teacher Kristen Lentz. Her husband, Phillip, is also new to the school as the new assistant principal. This creates opportunities to chat with each other during breaks and lunch.

“I think it’s super fun because we get to see each other just a little bit,” Kristen said. “We agreed that on Wednesdays we would have a lunch together in the cafeteria.”

This year is the first year the Lentz’s have ever worked in the same school together.

“We’ve always tried for it, but then it would always work out that he would be at the middle school and then I’d be at the high school or it was flip flopped,” Kristen said.

Their situation is certainly unique. The couple carpools together, dropping their twin daughters off at the elementary school before making their way to the high school.

“I’ve taught at other high schools, I think Lovejoy is by far in a way the best” Lentz said.  “It’s really new, the kids are really sweet, and everybody seems very involved and academically focused.Academics, I can tell, are a priority for the majority of the students, and they all have huge goals whether it’s sports or taking a jillion AP classes.”Starting a new job also means meeting new staff.  Kristen said the staff here has already made her feel welcome. Doyle has worked at larger schools, but said he likes the atmosphere at LHS.

“It is a relatively smaller staff than I’m used to working in, but also I think because the administration and the other teachers here have done such a great job at making it feel like a family, and making it feel like a really welcoming place, especially for new teachers,” Doyle said.Doyle has spent lots of time with the school’s theater department, getting to know Jessica Brewster, the theater director and acting teacher. He and Brewster had met previously through UIL competitions..

“I love Jessica Brewster,” Doyle said. “She is awesome. I knew her professionally for a couple of years before I started this job, and she seemed like a great person with a really solid philosophy on educational theatre, a philosophy I felt aligned with my own.”

The rest of the staff has worked to include new teachers by making sure they get invites to their weekly events.

“We have a weekly teacher get-together and that’s always fun to get to meet somebody new every time, and it’s just been really awesome getting to know everybody,” Doyle said. “It’s pretty overwhelming at times, but everybody’s really nice.”