Schools
AHS Assistant Principal Leaving – Will Pursue Film Project, Other Interests
This article contains a profile by the Albany High School Cougar of Assistant Principal Susan Charlip, who's leaving after 30 years with the school district, and a goodbye message from Charlip.
Editor's note: Patch thanks the Cougar, student publication at Albany High, for allowing us to republish this article from its June 7 special senior issue about the departure of Albany High Assistant Principal Susan Charlip. Below the article is a goodbye message from Charlip that was posted on the school website.
Saying Goodbye to a Great
By Clara MacLeodHaving occupied a variety of positions for a number of years, assistant principal Susan Charlip knows Albany Unified School District like no other. In what she describes as an “eye-opening experience,” Charlip has worked with ELD teachers and families, taught several classes at Albany High School and MacGregor High School, served in the Albany Teachers Association, and worked at the district office. For the past six years, she has been “living her dream,” working as an administrator here at Albany High School. But after 30 years of working for the Albany school district, Charlip will take on another career at the end of the year.
Charlip has switched roles many times at Albany. This would have been challenging for some, but as colleague and math teacher Dean Becker described, “She has moved from one area of education to another with a natural fluidity and grace. She was a great teacher and used her experience on her special assignments. She then became an administrator who saw things from both the “higher up” perspective and the “former teacher” perspective.
Charlip will also be remembered as someone who knows when to be serious and when to have fun. “I have always felt that I could speak freely with Ms. Charlip, both ‘on and off the record’ and share a deeper, more nuanced view of an issue,” continued Becker. “I also have enjoyed chiding her and bringing her down a peg or two (is this possible?) without fear of (too much) retribution. Staff members occasionally make humorous comments at our staff meetings. When I think back on the two or three most humorous comments I have ever heard, they were made by Charlip.”
Special education teacher Kathryn Fahrner, who has known Charlip as one of her teachers and now as a colleague, added, “As a teacher, Ms. Charlip always let us be ourselves, within reason. She even let me create a 12-month Josh Hartnett calendar when she was my graphic design teacher in 11th grade. As a vice principal, she provides the same sort of experience. She guides with excellent advice, but is able to step back and let me make important decisions in my classroom.”
It is with this sort of belief in students that Charlip has helped a legion of students become successful in life and their careers. Lucia Graves, a 2003 Albany High School graduate and current Huffington Post writer, had Charlip as an English teacher. She reflected: “She’s a wonderful teacher for so many reasons! Because she has insight into great literature and angsty students in equal measure. Because she’s the rare breed of human that genuinely likes teenagers and thinks they are capable of extraordinary things. Because she reads everything, calls B.S. and always, always returns your homework. I work in journalism now and a truly disturbing amount of what I’ve learned about writing and life, I learned from Susan Charlip.”
Although Charlip enjoys her current position as an administrator, her overall experience has been a good one. “Honestly there was something to like in each job, so to say I liked one best would be inaccurate. I like change, but this is a wonderful community and I had no reason to leave as long as I was going to stay in the business,” reflected Charlip.
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But there are times when one must move on. As one dream ends, so begins another. In high school, Ms. Charlip won a scholarship for acting but never pursued acting as a career. However, Charlip will have the opportunity to fulfill her own high school plans, as she has been invited to work on a feature film. Aside from the feature film, she has plans to study languages, travel more, and write.
We wish her the best in all her future endeavours and are confident she will be successful in whatever she does.
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Clara MacLeod will be attending UC Davis in the fall. She plans to work hard, make friends, and occasionally drag Hannah Trumbull’s lazy butt to the recreation center across from their dorm.
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Message from Charlip posted on the school website June 10 and updated June 12:
Thanks for the Memories: The Charlip Report — Final Edition
I know that many of you have already heard, but after 30 years of good times in Albany, I have decided to move on and explore new horizons. I am leaving with a full heart, difficult as it will be, as this is such a warm and welcoming community, a uniquely diverse small town (the 12th most diverse city in California, according to the US census) where I find many of my oldest, dearest friends.
When I started teaching in 1982 (English and "Minority History") there was a fully functioning auto shop at AHS, wood and metal shops, Home Economics class and "Family Life," a course which taught students to plan and manage a budget, live independently in an apartment —the top floor of the arts building had a simulated apartment which is very strange in retrospect. There was a John Birch Society book store on San Pablo Ave until the 70s, and the community was very conservative, especially compared with Berkeley, one mile and a world away. I have enjoyed seeing the way the student population has grown, and now it is not surprising to find 10 or more language groups in any given classroom. We celebrate this diversity in a rich and varied curriculum taught by a staff of dedicated, smart teachers. I am also in awe of our award winning arts, debate, and athletic programs, and a District Office that has kept us afloat through very hard economic times.
It is the students who have kept me here for all these years: sweet, lovable, challenging, provocative, engaging, and just very very good are words that come to mind when I think of our kids here. It is meaningful work and I do not understand how adults in the "real world" spend entire days without talking with and listening to teenagers, but I guess I will find out. I have had a rich, long career in Albany, a variety of jobs, and I am leaving with a sense of accomplishment and pride. I have been excited to see new smaller learning communities emerge, like EDSET and the new Venture program, a collaboration of arts and economics; and there is talk of a construction and building academy, with a relevant vocational focus that will prepare students for the workplace and beyond. It is an exciting place, our little Albany, and I am leaving it in very good hands.
Please stay in touch. I am not sure where my next path will lead me, but I live just around the bend. You can always find me on line at various social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Gmail.com. Thanks and Go Cougars!
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