“He was a good trumpet player.”

     Principal Chris Blice is referring to a former band student of his, Marcus Funchess. Funchess was a student of Blice’s as a freshman in high school as well as a member of his marching band. Now, Funchess is in yet another school with Blice, but this time in a new role. Funchess is Northwood’s new assistant principal, and his old teacher is now his boss.

     Funchess has been an educator for eight years, though this will be his second year as an administrator.  He is arriving at Northwood from Jordan High School in Durham.

     Although he has only been here a few weeks, Funchess is getting acquainted with the students and staff of Northwood. Funchess is already known for attending classes throughout the day. He took time during fourth block to take a test with Algebra 2 students.

     “I thought it was really cool,” said junior Miriam Stambach. “It’s like he was trying to show us that he wanted to see what we were going through.”

     Funchess sees a lot of differences between Northwood students and the students in the other schools he’s been in. Not only does he find Northwood students to be more pleasant and polite, but he is also impressed with the way Northwood students have pride in their school.

     “Students here seem to take ownership of their school, which makes the school a better place,” Funchess said.

     Blice sees Funchess’ knowledge of technology to be a great resource to Northwood’s future. Funchess says his goal is to do less with paper, and more things digitally to save money. He supports a number of new applications on the laptops for students to use, including having textbooks on the computers.

     Funchess has already changed the way Northwood does a couple of things. Instead of using the first 10 minutes of third period for announcements over the intercom, Funchess has the Journalism class record a podcast of announcements that can be found on Northwood’s home page. Funchess has also changed the way teachers can write up students for ISS so that it is an online record rather than a written report.

     “I really appreciate the fact that he’s making our access easier,” said Darian Cork, a science teacher who has already taken advantage of the new system.

     When asked about his goals for Northwood, Funchess said that he wanted to try to help Northwood become “better than what it is now.”

     Funchess feels very strongly that one should always do the best that one can.

     “I have a quote on my email: ‘When better is possible, good is not enough,’” he explained.

     Funchess says this means that when there’s a chance to improve, one needs to improve rather than stay put.

     “I see Northwood has potential to be one of the best schools in the state. Hopefully I can help [us] get to that point.”