Former Madison High School principal becomes a Cougar
He bounced around quite a bit growing up.
In fact, he moved five times before he graduated high school.
Yet, Texas had been ideal for his recently retired father-Lieutenant Colonel in the Army.
Principal Steve Zimmerman traveled back to San Antonio right before his freshman year at Marshall High School. He stayed at Marshall for all four years, knowing only a handful of his peers.
For Zimmerman, establishing a personal connection is important. At a young age, he moved a lot.
School after school.
City after city.
The last time he was in San Antonio, he was in the 3rd grade.
“There were maybe one or two people who remembered me,” Zimmerman said. “But most had no idea who I was, so my biggest thing was just getting to know people and making friends again.”
Zimmerman recalls an old high-school teacher of his, Mr. Brown, and a weekly exercise in his class that sparked a passion in him to seek connections in his professional life.
“I remember I had this biology teacher at Marshall,” Zimmerman said. “And one of the things that I remember very distinctly about him was that every Monday morning we would come into Brown’s class and talk about anything that we did over the weekend, and he would tell us about his weekend.”
The discussions gave Zimmerman important insight.
“It helped me understand that it’s important to know people as a person,” Zimmerman said. “Not just as someone who’s in your first-period class, and that’s been one of the things I’ve preached at every campus I’ve been to.”
Zimmerman’s journey into education, and athletics started from his father who, after retiring from the military, taught history at the high school level in Somerset, Texas.
“I spent a lot of time out where he was, working with him on the athletic side when he coached basketball, ” Zimmerman said. “He had this entire second career after the military of teaching and coaching. I didn’t go into the history area of teaching, but I realized that I really enjoyed being around that atmosphere.”
Zimmerman explains just what made this atmosphere so enticing.
“There’s just something about education and coaching,” Zimmerman said. “You’re immediately accepted when you come onto a campus as a new teacher, new coach. The people you work with accept you for who you are and for what you’re going to do, which is unique. Growing up, one of the things I’d dealt with was not always being accepted. Being the new guy is tough. That’s just not the case when it comes to education and that is what really drew me to it.”
As a high school student, Zimmerman didn’t want to go into education nor a principal.
He wanted to work in physical therapy.
“After about two years of going to college for physical therapy, I figured it wasn’t for me,” Zimmerman reflected. “Truthfully, I always had an interest in working with student-athletes. So I ended up coaching and teaching because of those relationships.”
Zimmerman had been interested in the sciences in high school. Learning the human body and all its functions and processes came easy to him, and physical therapy was something that allowed Zimmerman to stay connected with high-school athletes once his sports career was over.
Playing basketball and soccer from a young age, Zimmerman’s travel-heavy childhood meant that he would play the most popular sport according to the state he lived in.
“We had lived in Virginia and Kentucky where soccer was the predominant sport,” Zimmerman explains. “When we moved [back] down to Texas the seasons for soccer and basketball conflicted. I was able to do both growing up, but I had to choose between the two. I chose basketball, though I did end up getting back into soccer in college.”
Zimmerman is used to moving around and he’s used to being the new guy.
And such is the case with his career.
It is Zimmerman’s first year at Northside, but his seventh year as principal. The work experience speaks for itself. He’s garnered 16 years teaching in the classroom and coaching on the field, working at three different school districts in his educational career.
Zimmerman was a coach and IPC teacher before going into administration. He began at Canyon High School in New Braunfels, then Judson, and lastly Churchill. He then began his three years as principal at the middle school level, and then another three years at high school in the Northeast Independent School District.
Zimmerman feels nostalgia in switching districts.
“I went to Marshall for all four years of high school,” Zimmerman said. “And this [job] was a great chance to join a district that I know and love, as well as be at the premiere school of the district.”
Zimmerman’s first year as Clark principal has come with challenges.
He often feels the ways he tries to create connections with students and teachers has been restricted.
“It’s like a part of me, and a part of what I do here every day is missing, “ Zimmerman said. “Typically when I hear the bell ring I’d get up and walk the halls, talk to students, see what’s going on with them, and with the pandemic I can’t do that.”
The pandemic has also challenged Zimmerman and staff alike to revamp past processes for safety.
“With all the safety protocols that have been put into place,” Zimmerman said. “We have to examine almost every practice we do, the things we take for granted. In terms of how students arrive at school, where they go, what they do, we’ve examined almost all of our processes and protocols from a different lens to see really what it is we need to change.”
Zimmerman sees the pandemic as a “once in a generation” event.
“Looking back on what other events really changed society in the way COVID has,” Zimmerman said.
“The only thing that comes to mind is 9/11. It changed the policies we had in place, the safety protocols, the airport security, those things never existed before. In history, there’s some things that become generation defining moments, and this pandemic is one of them.”
With students coming back in October, Zimmerman looks forward to seeing his school truly back in session.
“The biggest thing for me is getting to know the students,” Zimmerman said. “As well as giving everyone a chance to know me. I view myself as a very involved principal, and besides going to school events to see those students, I’m here on campus early in the mornings.
Not every student is going to be in school events, some are here simply for academics, and those students are just as important to me as anyone else. For all students, I want to get to know who they are and what their hopes and dreams may be.”
Zimmerman offers insight into what students, teachers, and parents should keep in mind going forward.
“Things may never return to where they were before,’ Zimmerman said. “I hate to use the term ‘the new normal,’ but we have to determine what it looks like for everyday life now. It’s changed, and it may never get back to where it was.”
He dives deeper into why we must keep this in mind.
“Human nature is to have habits,” Zimmerman said. “It’s doing the same routines over and over, and whether we like it or not, all of us have routines that are comfortable for us, and those routines will have to change now. Friends getting close together to talk, that can’t happen anymore. We have to change the way we think and the way we do things.”
He also instructs those at Clark to find new ways of developing that crucial connection he realized was so important back in his high school days.
“Bonds are big,” Zimmerman said. “They’re big for students and teachers and they’re important to have between students and teachers. The way we connect has changed, but there’s still connections that can be made in the virtual platform. It’s just a matter of adapting to these changes, and finding comfort in doing that.
I remember a very important piece of advice given to me, and that was that it’s not what you do in life, it’s how you do it.”
Zimmerman feels comfortable connections like these can help many students, and for people like him, human connection is a way of going about education.
To him, it can help us get through a pandemic, no matter its influence. It was something that certainly helped Zimmerman growing up, and it hasn’t stopped helping since.
“I hate to see people give up hope,” Zimmerman said. “I don’t want people to feel like they’re stuck in a situation because of things outside of their control. That’s why I like talking to students. It’s all too often I hear students say that they’ll never get to do this or that. To give up on something so early in life, to set limits or put ceilings on yourself. Within reason, if you really want it, it’s possible. Nowadays, it may be especially hard to see that.” By Ian Pumphrey
COVID and flu causes catastrophe
October 17 ended Week 42 of COVID-19 in the U.S.
In 42 weeks, there have been 8,617,022 cases, and 224,601 deaths. There’s been a slight increase in cases since late August, an increase in COVID-related hospitalization rates since late September, and a general decrease in mortality rates, though they remain above the epidemic threshold.
In Bexar county as of October 23, there have been 64,476 COVID-19 cases, and 1,392 deaths. By November 14, the U.S. expects there to be anywhere from 240,000 to 500,000 new cases.
But now, we have another threat approaching.
Flu season.
It began during the first week of October, and lasts until the third week of May. The general mortality rate of the influenza virus is 0.1 percent in the U.S., and COVID-19 is 10 times more lethal than that. The 2017-18 flu season was particularly bad, with 61,000 deaths, and while the final numbers aren’t yet available, the 2019-2020 season had anywhere from 29,000 to 59,000.
It is recommended that anybody six months of age or older get the influenza vaccine beginning in October. Campus nurse Mary Hernandez said the number of students with flu-like symptoms last year seemed higher than usual. For COVID-19, a person can be contagious and spread the flu virus even before they have any symptoms, which can be anywhere from one day before to five and seven days after they have been sick.
“Symptoms of the flu include fever or feeling feverish or having chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle or body aches and extreme tiredness,” Hernandez said. “It is recommended to stay away from people who are sick, eat a healthy diet, drink water, and get plenty of sleep each night.”
As the flu season approaches, continue to stay safe using the same protective measures we’re used to by now. Stay six feet away from other people, wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer, wear a face and nose covering, monitor your temperature if symptoms appear and clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces. By Annabelle Podmore