Many know Dean Laura Clegg, but this year she made the transition back into the classroom to be Mrs. Clegg. As of 2019, she has been at Lake Forest High School for 20 years and plans to stay for many more. Clegg taught for four years before she became a dean and then was a dean but still taught a class for a year. She officially made the switch to be a full-time dean and was in that position for 14 years. This school year was her first year back into the classroom, and she no longer was working in the administrative side of the school. She is currently teaching a variety of classes including Law, Fashion, Business Entrepreneurship, and Consumer Ed.

I asked Mrs. Clegg many questions about her transition and how it is going. The first question I asked was, why did you change? “There were about 100 different reasons why I switched; the main one was that I liked being in administration and still working with students but as the years went on, it started becoming less and less interaction with the students,” said Clegg.
The one thing that I really like that Clegg said was, “I really like working with high school kids.” It is such a nice thing for students to hear when their teachers truly enjoy working with them and have a passion for it.

Clegg knew the change back into the classroom would be a challenge but she was ready to conquer it. “It was really scary at first,” Clegg said. “Overall, it went much smoother than I had anticipated.”
She had some fears about the teaching side of it and having to get back into the swing of things, but she said, “It came back to me a lot faster than I thought. As a dean I was always evaluating teachers, so I was able to go back in knowing what good teaching looks like.” Clegg also mentioned “shooting for that knowing it wasn’t going to happen right off the bat.”

She did mention one of the things she misses about being upstairs was, “Being in your own classroom, you don’t have a lot of adult contact,” Clegg said. “Not interacting with the people I work with every day is hard.” Mr. Lesniak, Mr. Maher, and Mrs. Tomek were hard for her to leave, “They are my friends,” said Clegg.

When I went into the Dean’s Office, I asked Patrice McDermand how she felt about Mrs. Clegg leaving the office; she had a very sweet response, “I miss having Mrs. Clegg. We had a long run together, and even though I still see her, it’s not the same.”

Mrs. Clegg is missed in the Dean’s Office but Mrs. Clegg also misses being in the Dean’s Office. She is very happy to be back in the classroom and having more contact with high school kids. The students are happy to have you in the classroom. Best of luck next year!