Couples As Colleagues At NHS

By Andrew Rote

Every semester at Newtown High School, students receive their new schedules and teacher assignments. As students look down the list, they notice the same last name twice on their papers.

This scenario is not entirely impossible: there are several married couples who both teach at NHS.

Science teacher Michael Chervansky and math teacher Ava Chervansky are both faculty members at the high school. They met each other 23 years ago, working in the same building.

According to Mrs Chervansky, having a student who has both her and her husband as teachers could cause them some trouble. Occasionally, they plan a test for the same day, and are blamed for doing it on purpose.

She says that having a spouse work in the same building is an advantage. She explains, when she has a bad day, it’s nice to be near “someone you feel comfortable with to talk to.”

The Chervanskys have been married 16 years of the 23 years they have worked together. Even though they work so close to each other, Mrs Chervansky admits that they rarely get the same periods free and only seem to have time for a quick hello.

Mr Chervansky confirms, “We have busy schedules and hardly see each other.”

Work is a big part of life, but they leave their jobs at school when they go home. They discuss their day in the car, and by the time they arrive at their house, they are ready to hear about their sons’ days.

Understandably, it can be a bit hard for couples who work together to balance their professional and private lives, but that is exactly what experts suggest. According to the writers of ValuableTips.com, one of the best ways for spouses who work together to keep from driving each other crazy is to separate business life from personal life, and not to talk too much about work at home.

This strategy, for the most part, has worked for the Chervanskys and for Charles and Karen Mann.

Mr and Mrs Mann have been working in the same building for 27 years, 23 of them as a married couple. Mr Mann, a history teacher, and Mrs Mann, the school’s library media specialist, met while carpooling together during the gas crisis of the late 1970s. 

Mr Mann says working in the same building as his wife is very convenient for communication. It also helps that they know the same people. They don’t see each other too often, either.

“It’s wonderful if you have to bring your car in for repair,” Mrs Mann says. She adds that it’s very convenient for her family to have the same general schedule during the day.

They talk about the high school at home, although only a little bit they say. Their main topic of interest outside of the building, however, is talking to their 15-year-old son about his day.

(Andrew Rote is a sophomore journalism student at Newtown High School. He contributes sports and feature stories for the school paper, The Hawkeye.)