Megan Burnett

When science teacher Megan Burnett first arrived at YCHS, she first thought of the appearance of the buildings and how outstanding they are.

     “My first impression was the dome building is beautiful and the brick buildings. This is a nice school,” Burnett said. “At my last school, I was in a windowless room. This was a good change.”

     Burnett says that she used to teach younger grades, but now prefers teaching teens. 

    “I taught kindergarten and I was sick all the time. It was disgusting, but for years, I volunteered with teens,” Burnett said.  “I feel like a lot of them were in this mindset that adults just don’t care and don’t listen to them. It was really cool seeing them open up to people and to see that they were cared for.” 

      Other reasons Burnett enjoys working at YC are because of the admin and the variety of electives that are offered. 

      “It is nice that admin follows through with referrals because [at other schools], that is not always the case.” Burnett explains, “[Students] have a lot of electives to choose from. I think that makes [students] more interested in the work they do, which is also really nice.”

     New to the YC staff, Burnett hopes to make an impact on all of her students. 

“I hope that people stop saying they hate science. I hear it all the time,” she explained. “It is so relevant to living. In every aspect of your life science is so important. I hope to make it not so boring.”

     Megan Burnett currently teaches earth and space science, chemistry, rocketry and freshman success. 

Anthony Cicoria

The first thing middle and high school math teacher, Anthony Cicoria noticed about the YC family was how supportive everyone is, making him feel more welcome.

     “The staff is super super supportive,” Cicoria said. “The seventh and eighth grade team are really supportive and the administrators are pretty neat people.”

     Considering the small numbers the YC community has, it creates the feeling that we are a family. This is one of the things that Anthony says he enjoys. 

     “It’s a small community. It’s kind of like being a kid.” He said, “I grew up in a town (a lot bigger than this) where everybody knows everybody. That’s what I like.” 

However, small classes isn’t what brought Cicoria to teaching. He explains that it came from the inspiration of his grandma who was a teacher for many years. This is the main reason he is a teacher today.

     “She’s my hero. Both [my grandma and grandpa] are my heroes,” he explains, “but she was teaching. [She] taught for 30 years.”

     From his inspiration, Anthony has taught social studies in the past, now moving on to math. He talks about what he enjoys in teaching both middle school and high school students. 

     “[I like] being able to teach 3 section of high school students and 3 sections of eighth graders. Freshman [are]  a challenge and I’ve never shied away from a challenge.” Cicoria explains,”It’s a new subject for me, too, coming to math for the first time coming from the economics environment. I’m teaching that math [from social studies] that is applied.”

     While teacher Anthony Cicoria may be new to the YC staff, he has a vision for the future. That future is making a positive impact to the YC family. 

     “I want to have a positive impact everywhere I go. If that means just being a positive role model, whatever the case may be, I want to have a positive impact. I want to leave this place better than I found it.”