In any normal school year, two new deans would be able to adjust to their new school fairly quickly. As they monitored students during lunches, and saw them in the hallways, they would get to know the students and the school better, and settle into their new jobs. Cara Weinberg and Alberto Jaquez do not have this luxury, Riverside Brookfield High School’s two new deans, hired over the summer, have started their first year at the school under unique circumstances, as RB has opened the year under a fully remote learning plan.

Although it has taken some getting used to, Weinberg and Jaquez both agree that they have had a good start to the year. Weinberg is grateful to the RB community for making her transition easier, and looks forward to getting better acquainted with everyone involved in the community.

“Obviously it’s tough starting anything during a pandemic, but students and the families have been so welcoming, staff have been welcoming,” said Weinberg, “it’s just learning both how the community works and how our students work and how the building works.”

Without students in the building, deans have had to adapt to a completely new way of doing their job. Unable to meet with students in the building, Jaquez and Weinberg, as well as their colleague, Dave Mannon have been much busier this school year than they ever were before.

“There’s going to be more outreach than before. Because now that students are home, the deans have to go out to the community, out to the home, to support the students,” said Principal Dr. Hector Freytas.

One of the first problems that Jaquez and Weinberg have had to deal with is unique to 2020, Zoom Bombing. There have been a few incidents of Zoom bombing at RB this year, in which a student joins a virtual meeting for a class that they are not in.

“Now what we’re dealing with is Zoom bombing, so the deans are gonna be looking at video, following up with teachers, following up with students, and holding students accountable, who do a zoom bomb that disrupts our education environment and hurts others,” said Freytas.

While a deans main role is to be in charge of discipline, Jaquez hopes that students will see himself and Weinberg as more than just authority figures.

“We want to be visible, make sure that all of you know that you have an ally, an advocate, we’re here for you,” said Jaquez.

Dr. Freytas stressed that all of RB’s deans have difficult jobs this year, and that the school is grateful to have them.

“It’s a very unique time to be a dean now, because the training is, we’re living it,” said Freytas.