Life at a place like Wilde Lake may be the norm for most students and teachers in Howard County. However, when new math teacher Mr. Calkins transferred to Wilde Lake from a Great Oaks Career Campus in Cincinnati, Ohio, he found a completely different environment than he was used to.

“The school I taught math at in Cincinnati for the previous four years is a career technical school. It only has eleventh and twelfth graders who are there to become nurses, welders, policemen, firefighters, cosmetologists, and other similar professions,” he said.

Students at Scarlet Oaks spend half the day in their career lab and half the day doing academics. “Here at Wilde Lake, there is so much more going on in terms of activities. I had forgotten that’s how a normal school operated,” said Mr. Calkins.

Mr. Calkins hopes to continue to have a smooth transition into a school that he’s not quite used to. “Wilde Lake has been really good to me so far,” he said.