By Xander Mui, Staff Writer
After almost 30 years at Galileo, school librarian & former teacher, Mr. Phelps has decided to say goodbye to Galileo & take the position of librarian at another high school. He has helped Galileo teachers and students in the library for the last 10 years.
Before Mr. Phelps became the school librarian, he had already been working at Galileo as a teacher. He first started off working with peer resources, and then started teaching AVID, Ethnic studies, and other social studies classes.
The reason Mr. Phelps went into education is because he didn’t have such a great experience in high school. He wanted to come back as a teacher as someone who was kind and approachable to students, so he could help make a change in society. Mr. Phelps was recognized multiple times for the hard work & care he showed with the students as he was recognized Teacher of the Year twice, and as Staff of the Year once.
Mr. Phelps took a sabbatical in 2013 when he was a teacher, so another teacher took over for his class. After returning from sabbatical leave in 2014, the previous librarian had left and Mr. Phelps was offered the opportunity to become the school librarian. He said, “I just fell into the librarian position. ”
Mr. Phelps plans to move to Lowell High School to take one of the librarian positions there, and hopes to start clubs there such as Kendo club, a club he started at Galileo. “I’ve been here for 29 years and I just started feeling like it’s a good time for a change in scenery and to finish my career,” Mr. Phelps says. He plans to retire in 4 or 5 years.
Although Mr. Phelps has his eyes on the future, he will look back on his time at Galileo fondly.
“I will really miss the strong community that’s here at Galileo,” he says. His favorite memory at Galileo was in 2008 during a Black History Month assembly, where he performed a condensed Barack Obama speech. It was kind of scary for him, but it went very well and it was a lot of fun.
