Ms. Lynette Ohanian is our newest assistant principal at GHS, and she lived in two different countries before finally moving to Burbank. She had previously worked as an assistant principal for many years at Roosevelt Middle School, but it is her first year as an AP at a high school.
Ms. Ohanian was born in Iran and lived there for a short period of time. She then lived in Spain for two years and went to elementary school there for kindergarten and first grade.
Ms. Ohanian eventually moved to Burbank, and she continued her elementary and middle school education there before finally graduating from Burbank High School. She was a part of the cross country team at BHS, played volleyball for a short time, and was part of a humanitarian club that is similar to the WE Club that we also have on our campus.
After high school, Ms. Ohanian attended CSUN, where she earned her degree in Education. During her time at university, she worked at an all-women’s gym, and that’s what got her through school. She also worked as a substitute teacher at many different schools.
Before coming to Glendale High School, Ms. Ohanian worked as a history, English, and ELD teacher at Roosevelt. Not only that, she worked as a teacher specialist and she mentioned how the job is hard and often chaotic. Ms. Ohanian is surprised how Ms. Kleinberg, our own teacher specialist here at GHS, makes her job look so easy. She later worked as an assistant principal at Roosevelt and has a lot of experience at the job she is doing.
When she has time at home and not all over the place at school, Ms. Ohanian likes to run, spend time with her 9-year-old, and hang out at home.
A few months back, Ms. Ohanian arrived for her first day at Glendale High School and replaced Ms. Diana Hernandez, who is currently working as the new principal at Cerritos Elementary School. Ironically, she and Ms. Hernandez had known each other before and are very good friends.
Ms. Ohanian mentioned she “called Ms. Hernandez and she encouraged me to go to USC to get my Doctorate degree.” They both attend USC together, and Ms Ohanian felt inspired to be in Ms. Hernandez’s old position and looks up to her and aspires to be what she has become. Ms. Ohanian is now in her second year of the USC Doctor of Education program.
The transition from Roosevelt to GHS made Ms. Ohanian feel nervous at first, since the enrollment at Roosevelt is about 700 and our school site has nearly 2000 students. But when she saw, and was greeted by, the familiar faces of students that went to Roosevelt, it made her feel calmer, and she realized everything that will be okay.
What makes Ms. Ohanian’s job much easier is not having to tell students what to do and what not to do. She notices that, when she supervises around campus, all the students are grouped in different places and are diverse with each other. It feels validating for her that she can talk to all of our students like adults and not have to boss them around, like reminding them not to run through the halls. Ms. Ohanian also mentioned that the Nitro students are all amazing.
As for her colleagues, Ms. Ohanian likes how everyone is so nice to her, and all the assistant principals are really supportive. She also added that Dr. Wolf is really kind, supportive, and patient, and she feels that everyone in the main office is really kind.
Ms. Ohanian feels that our campus is perfect the way it is, but she wants to bring our EL students into different groups
so that they can help other students achieve at their highest level. Not only that, but Ms. Ohanian feels that in public schools in general, there are inequities in the system, and she wants everyone to have a fair chance at an education. She believes that students may not try as hard as they can, because they may not feel that they have access to the opportunities and resources that can truly help them.
Ms. Ohanian’s advice to students who are planning to get into education is that “it’s a rewarding job and you get to work with people…which shows that you’re an effective role model.”
In the end, Ms. Ohanian enjoys our big campus with its friendly people and students, and she can’t wait to jump into the new pool when the weather is hot enough. In the future, she wants to figure out the “high school” way of doing things, finish her doctorate program, and hopefully become a principal of her own school one day.
Ms. Ohanian hopes everyone has a safe school year due to the pandemic that is still going on, and she hopes that all students will be safe emotionally and socially and be successful. If you see Ms. Ohanian on campus, please be sure to say hello!
