
Most of you all know that the principal at New Haven High School is Mr. Hoener, but how much do you actually know about him besides his name and the fact that he’s the principal?
Josh Hoener grew up in the town of Owensville, Missouri. Later on, he started his first teaching job at Owensville High School where he taught math for six years.
He says that even though his first plans were to become a geological engineer, in high school, one of his former football coaches who was passionate about teaching and coaching inspired him to go into the teaching profession.
Mr. Hoener said, “I guess I realized that I wanted to teach more than I wanted to go into engineering because when I was substitute teaching, I realized that I liked my Tuesdays and Thursdays a lot more than I liked my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”
He also met his wife, one of New Haven High School’s math teachers, Jaime Hoener, at Owensville High. Mrs. Hoener said, “We met while I was doing my student teaching in the room right next door to his classroom.” No, she was not student teaching for Mr. Hoener--she wanted to make that clear.
When asked about some perks of working with his wife, Mr. Hoener replied, “I get to see her a lot more than I used to see her, and it’s nice to finally be on the same team.”
When I asked Mr. Hoener what he liked to do in his free time, he replied with, “What’s free time?” at first, but then went on to say that he likes to just relax and spend time with his family.
When it comes to his reasons behind getting into administration, he said, “First of all, it was the best way for me to get into this school district because I didn’t really have any other avenues to do that since I was a math teacher to begin with, and there were no jobs for math open. I wouldn’t say that I had any intention to become a principal, I just took advantage of an opportunity when it came forward.”
Students are thankful for Mr. Hoener’s decision to become an administrator. Student Council president Lauren Bergner says, “Mr. Hoener is a great principal. I can’t wait to go on Senior Trip with him!”
Mr. Hoener describes his daily routine as being nonexistent. “Each day for me is different,” Mr. Hoener says, “unlike the students and teachers. That’s the good thing about being an administrator. I work on tons of stuff, whether it be dealing with eighth hours and purchase orders, planning meetings, working with the track project, or organizing Senior Trip. Just making sure the school runs smoothly and that all of the teachers have everything to run their classrooms, is in a nutshell, is really what this job is.”
When I asked if Mr. Hoener had any crazy stories about students, he was at a loss. “Our school has such discipline that we just don’t hear the kind of stories that teachers at other schools might be able to tell,” Mr. Hoener says.
He did have a few stories related to some of his best days, though. “My best day was probably the first day, just because of the unknown.”
Mr. Hoener explained how it was a huge leap of faith going into a new district. He didn’t know if it was going to go well or if it was going to go badly.
Mr. Hoener described another one of his best days at New Haven High as being the day that he watched his first Senior Class cross the stage at graduation.
Even though there are special days that stand out, Mr. Hoener was quick to defend all the other days he’s spent working in our school district; “I really just don’t have days where I don’t want to come to school,” Mr. Hoener says, “I know that there are some people that count down the days until summer, but for me, it’s really the opposite.”
Now we’ll discuss some fun facts about Mr. Hoener. His favorite candy is Reese's Cups. His favorite sports team is the Denver Broncos. If he could visit any one of the seven continents, he would visit Europe, because of the history.
Thank you, Mr. Hoener, for all that you do for New Haven High School!