Rochelle Hewlett: We were both hired in the same year, 1995. We started when there were 300 students in the entire high school, a very different environment. We grew together, if you will, from a very small school to a very large school.
Jay Teagle: This is my 17th year.
Hewlett: When I started working here, there was no curriculum. When I walked into Huntley they handed me several books, and they said, “These are the books you’re going to use.” Throughout the years, Mr. Johnson and myself have gone to a plethora of conferences, paid attention to what the state was looking for, paid attention to what the ACT was looking for, and really worked to develop a very rigid English curriculum that holds students to a high standard but allows some flexibility amongst teachers that allows students to be extremely successful on the ACT as well as their careers when they move on from here. In 18 years we went from having nothing to having a completely aligned curriculum to the standards of Illinois, as well as in correlation of the ACT. That’s huge.
Teagle: He interviewed me for the head basketball job here at Huntley. I was impressed with him at that point. You could tell he was an intelligent man. He knew a lot about education, he knew a lot about what the school district was about. He’s very easy to talk to.
Laura Devlin: I think it was 1997 [when I started working at Huntley High School]. Maybe ’98.
Teagle: For me and my position here, he has been very understanding, very upfront with me, very honest with me, very supportive with me in the classroom.
Devlin: When he interviewed me, he was wearing cowboy boots and he put his feet up on the desk and ate an apple. I didn’t know if it was a tactic or if he was just in his own world.
Hewlett: I’ve been in a plethora of interviews with Mr. Johnson where he is bouncing his cowboy boot, getting antsy, hitting the table, where I will often have to look at him and be like, “Cut it out, enough.” He’s casual with his cowboy boots, having an apple, but he’s so knowledgeable. His approach is very relaxed, but behind that relaxed appearance, really is somebody who is very passionate, very driven, very intelligent. His mind might be going at all costs, no matter how he’s sitting around.
Devlin: His handwriting is horrible. I think it’s just like scrawl. And that’s how his mind works. It’s like he’s everywhere.
Hewlett: Mr. Johnson is not a go home, sit on the couch, watch TV kind of guy.
Devlin: I know that loves Bob Dylan. I know that he likes to go listen to live music. His wife is Jane and she works over at another school. They live in St. Charles. They have three kids.
Hewlett: He’s got a great sense of humor that not everybody gets to see. He’s very into music. He’s a huge Bob Dylan fan. He loves to concerts, which people would say, “Wow, that’s kind of weird.” But that’s what he does.
Devlin: He’s always in a hurry. Sometimes if I have to talk to him seriously about something, he’ll say, “All right, let’s walk and talk. What’s the good word?” I think his mind goes a thousand miles an hour.
Hewlett: One thing I think people don’t realize is that Mr. Johnson reads an awful lot, which is a contradiction for someone who can’t sit still. They like to travel a lot, and I always tease his wife and ask her, “Well, what do you do when you go on vacation?” And she says, “Oh, sometimes we’ll go on the beach and read a book.” And I’ll say, “How does he sit still?”
Hewlett: When I was in high school, I couldn’t even tell you what my principal looked like. The idea was that the principal sits in his office and dictates from his office. At least, that’s what I thought when I was growing up. Rarely will you find Mr. Johnson in his office. He’s someone who’s walking into classrooms, talking to teachers, dealing with students.
Teagle: He was at a lot of the games. He would go to the away games. He would always be interested in how we were doing athletically, how the kids were doing.
Devlin: Oh gosh, what hasn’t he done? He’s seen a school grow from a high school about 280 kids to about 2300. Very few principals go through anything like that.
Hewlett: I think that as the school grows, it becomes very difficult for a principal to get out and get to know the students very well. I can tell you that Mr. Johnson goes to the majority of all football games, plenty of basketball games, plenty of soccer games. He is out there trying to interact with students as much as he possibly can. I think he genuinely has a love for what he does and have the students see him as a person rather than just the leader of the building. I think it’s important for students to know who their principal is when he’s walking down the hall.
Teagle: I think Mr. Johnson has led this push to keep this climate the way it needs to be as a one cohesive unit.
Devlin: I think he’s a wonderful boss and I can’t speak highly enough of him. I always appreciated him as a boss, but one time that really stood out was that I had a parent that just did not like me. He wanted to cause a stink that I was being mean to his daughter. I was young and I took it personally. Mr. Johnson said, “Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.” He led the meeting [with the parent] and took charge of it, and I knew that he has 100 percent support of me and that he would always believe in me and always trust me and always respect me and at that moment, I knew he was going to be one of the best bosses I would ever have.
Teagle: I, under just knowing Mr. Johnson, figured that this may be the year. But I also thought that last year may be the year, too.
Devlin: He slipped it in the “Keeping In Touch,” which he sends out every Friday to keep teachers informed of everything that’s going on. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but he sent it out late on a Friday. Usually he’ll send them at the very end of the day so you’ll read them when you go home, but it wasn’t emailed to us until after a lot of people went home. I think he was trying to be sneaky so that people wouldn’t rush down there and say, “Come on! One more year!” I would’ve.
Hewlett: Mr. Johnson spoke with me about it, and I think the difference with me and some of the newer staff is that we worked together since the very beginning, we have a professional relationship, and I would call him my friend. So I think that, out of respect, he came and he told me.
Devlin: I understand wanting to retire, but I wish he’d stay on for a while longer.
Hewlett: I think it’s going to be a difficult transition for him because he’s so involved, and I think he truly loves what he does here.
Teagle: You’d think he can’t sit still but I’m sure he’s got everything planned out. He’s a smart man.
Hewlett: I’m not sure that he’s a very replaceable individual. I believe that whomever they choose to replace him can replace the position, but they can’t replace the person.
Teagle: I appreciate him and the way he has treated me, not only as a teacher, but as an individual person. It’s been a pleasure being a teacher under Mr. Johnson..
Devlin: [He taught me] to always see the good in every student. That’s something that’s always stayed in my head with the kids when I’m getting irritated in them. That’s something that he’s taught me that I, still today, tell myself. That’s what will stick with me.
Hewlett: Many years ago I was working on my first Master’s degree. Teachers from all over talk about different things that are happening in their buildings and it became a joke that Huntley High School is Disney Land. Anytime somebody would make a comment, they would say, “So, Rochelle, what’s it like in Disney Land for you?” I believe that with the wrong kind of leadership in this building, good students can turn bad. Mr. Johnson has allowed an environment of a hometown, community type of feel here where students can feel welcomed here, and teachers can feel welcomed here. Not only welcomed, but appreciated. When people feel appreciated, wanted, welcomed, respected, you could only go in a positive way. I think what he’s leaving behind is 20 years of allowing that culture to develop. That could not have been done if it wasn’t by his leadership. I think that when he looks back, he should be damn proud of what he has created here, because it is an amazing place to work. I could not imagine being somewhere else.