ByJake Dziubla
Round Table sports editor
The year was 1972. Middletown was a typical farming community, consisting of rural landscape that seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. The urban sprawl was inching toward Middletown, yet the quaint community remained untouched. Middletown High School, as it is known today, had not yet been built. Instead, the present middle school grouped grades 7 through 12 together, creating instances in which 12-year-olds sat alongside seniors. The senior class of 1972 was made up of fewer than 100 students.
One of those seniors was Peggy Throne, who had recently moved from Anne Arundel County. Throne’s previous high school had 3,000 students and was filled with a cultural fervor, stemming from civil rights. “Racial riots,” said Throne, were commonplace.
Initially, Throne did not care much for Middletown. Her mother, however, told her that one day she would live there.
Two years later in 1974, Frederick High School hired Jay Berno, the current principal at MHS, as a special education teacher. Berno would spend the next 14 years teaching there and another three years as an administrator.
The year is now 2012. Summer is quickly approaching and for Berno and Throne, it is the end of the road for them at MHS. For Throne, who spent her first 13 years of counseling at Middletown Middle School and the next 10 at MHS, her retirement is anything but easy for her.
“Leaving the kids is going to be hard”, said a visibly emotional Throne as she reflected on her years at the high school. “It’s been a pleasure.”
Throne began as a physical education teacher, allowing her to “connect” with the student athletes that she coached. Counseling was a “natural transition,” said Throne, remarking that as a coach she was able to engage with her students and “talk about things other than ‘how’re you doing?’”.
With more than 25 years as a counselor, Throne has gone through generations of students both at the middle and high school level, many of whom with which she still manages to keep in contact.
“I get phone calls from them a lot, and I still meet them for lunch. I really enjoy that,” said Throne.
Throne has opted to retire after the 2012 school year due to a Frederick County Public School decision to cut a counselor from each high school, leaving each remaining counselor to look after 100 more students than currently responsible for.
“Some of them will be fine with that. That’s just the way they do business…but I can’t do business like that,” said Throne, still struggling with the reality of what was to come.
Another guidance counselor, Rena Egan, is also departing from Middletown after the school year. Egan, who has been counseling for 17 years with 10 of those at MHS, will be headed to Brunswick Middle School.
“The transition will be difficult. I’ve done high school my whole life,” said Egan, who began her counseling at a private high school in Pennsylvania. She then worked at a public school in order to gain experience, only to then be hired at private school for another five years. Egan’s counseling career in Maryland began at Northwest High School in Montgomery County.
Egan, like Throne, pointed out the uniqueness that MHS carries in terms of “closeness.”
“Everyone knows everyone and has grown up together… It’s unique for Maryland (high schools),” Egan said as she contrasted between her counseling days in Pennsylvania and Maryland. “I feel like I’ve been part of the family,” said Egan, smiling. “I was accepted immediately.”
“I’m going to miss everyone very, very much,” Egan said.
For Jay Berno, the current principal of MHS who is transferring to Urbana High School, the four years that he spent at MHS were “the best years of the 38 years I’ve ever had.”
After serving as an administrator at FHS for three years, Berno was transferred to Walkersville High School, where he was a principal for nine years, beginning in 1993. He then was sent to the then under-construction Tuscarora High School, where he aided in the designing process of the school and also ordered furniture and classroom materials.
When he came to Middletown four years ago, Berno quickly caught on to the uniqueness that MHS embodies.
“Middletown has a real strong sense of community and they have a lot of traditions that have been very successful,” said Berno. He compared MHS to WHS by noting that only a single middle school feeds each high school. Most high schools across the county are fed by at least two. “It just makes the transition into high school a lot easier,” said Berno, as he spoke of the single-feeder designs that WHS and MHS share.
Berno went further on to explain that the parental involvement with the school, as well as the “traditions” that the community and high school participate in, are what define MHS’s sense of community.
“There’s just a lot of good communication between the school and other things that are going on in the town,” said Berno, explaining that the surrounding communities of Wolfsville and Myersville also share a relationship with the high school.
When asked what he would miss the most from MHS, Berno was quick to respond.
“Great students…the students here are just really nice people and the staff really cares about the students and they also care about themselves,” said Berno.
As far as the reasons behind his departure, Berno explained that the transference of administrators from one school to another has become somewhat of a “trend” for FCPS as of late.
“What they’re trying to do is accomplish a process that will give people experiences in different areas in terms of school cultures and provide leadership opportunities for other folks,” said Berno.
Berno is not the only administrator who will shortly be transferring from MHS, however. Assistant Principal Daniel Mullins will also be leaving for Oakdale High School, in the same vicinity as his alma mater, Linganore High School.
Mullins, a graduate of Hood, began his career as an English teacher at FHS. He also taught at Thomas Johnson High School and THS, but then came to the realization that his interests were “broader than working in the classroom.”
“I wanted to work more with teachers and with students’ parents…more of the big picture,” said Mullins.
Mullins, unlike the other faculty members who will be leaving this year, was unaware of the school that he would be transferred to until earlier this week. Oakdale High School, which opened its doors in 2010, is the one school in the county that Mullins does not know much about, yet Mullins is prepared to begin a new chapter in his career.
“(I’m) excited,” said Mullins, as he described Oakdale’s willingness to “try new things” given their relatively recent introduction to FCPS.
Mullins, like most administrators, sees himself as more of an employee of FCPS and not tied to the community of the school he belongs to, like many teachers.
“I’m more of an FCPS employee than an MHS employee,” said Mullins. Regardless, Mullin’s described his tenure at MHS as “fantastic.”
It is without a doubt that the upcoming 2012-2013 school year will be different for those at MHS. But for the aforementioned faculty who will not be present, “the show must go on”, leaving behind them a high school that has flourished with their presence.
