Long lines of tardy students, crowded bathrooms, limited hall passes — students and teachers at Fremont High School experience these suboptimal occasions daily. Yet, for Alex Glabius, a science teacher new to the district, has first-hand experience of working in different districts which has given him unique experiences that not everyone will encounter.

When lecturing, Glaubius references his past experiences in his previous school to help students understand the content and entertain everyone, and many of his students love to learn about the crazy experiences that occurred when teaching at his previous school. 

“There’s plenty of stories to tell; it’s tough to pick just one or two,” Glaubius said. “For a small school, we definitely had a lot of things go on in my six years there.”

The school he is referring to is Laurel-Concord-Coleridge in Laurel, Nebraska. The small school which “consisted of about five different buildings” had its downsides throughout Glaubius’ time at LCC. 

“We had a 1922 building that was in disrepair that was having water damage on the main floor meaning the roof and the second floor were leaking water all the way down,” Glaubius said. “We had our English and Spanish and Industrial tech classes in a machine shed type quonset and the other wings were built in the 40s to 60s. My classroom had cracks from the foundation to the ceiling and had plants growing out the radiator from the outside. We got the vines to grow about 6 feet up the final year.” 

A much-needed construction project was the cause of many additional issues with everyday school. It caused classes to move to trailers, an auditorium, and an old fire station. Despite it being a small town, many interesting things can happen, such as a quadruple homicide. 

“The murderer’s house is two houses from the downtown auditorium that I taught in,” Glaubius said. “The murderer’s wife would pay her city bill in the unlocked building I taught in. She is now in jail and getting charged with murder.”

There were many other struggles with the construction project, such as no insulation in trailers during the winter and having to teach in the same room with three different teachers.

“You could hear every whisper, every step in the other rooms.” 

Apart from all of the bad sides to the town and school, there were also good aspects of LCC. They had a mental health specialist for their district and they did not share that specialist with surrounding districts. 

“It was tough at first but the culture of the students started to change as we implemented more mental health from kindergarten to seniors,” Glaubius said. “It used to be a secret if you want to talk to her but in the last couple of years, we probably had about 50% of our students talking to her about various things. It had de-stigmatized the idea and our kids understood it wasn’t a get out of free card but an ‘I need additional help at this time’ card.” 

After Glaubius’ six years of working at LCC, he decided to move to Fremont and teach at Fremont Senior High School. He had a few good reasons to move, although anyone who has heard his stories would think that it was a smart thing to do.

“There was very little to do in the community,” Glaubius said. “Everything was 45 minutes away from Laurel. I was burned out and the usual small-town drama that always entails any life in small towns.” 

Believe it or not, FHS offered several opportunities that his other school didn’t. 

“I wasn’t guilted into having to coach multiple activities to keep the activities alive,” Glaubius said. “I could come to school to teach and be able to leave after school and focus on teaching.”

Along with this Glaubius also said that he likes the larger size of FHS. There are also more opportunities in Fremont. And there are better aspects of Fremont High School than LCC. 

“The administration at FHS is much more professional and supportive,” Glaubius said. “FHS still has its cliques but they are less apparent or more so less dominant than in small districts where you can clearly see where the lines are drawn. FHS also provides a lot of opportunities for students and the early graduation program.” 

Even though there were major downsides to LCC, Glaubius said he sometimes misses the staff and kids whom he got to know well over the years, but he still doesn’t regret his decision.