Social studies teacher Brian Thomas and English teacher Megan Vargo are back at Skyline after being relocated at the end of the 2023-2024 school year due to budget cuts.
Thomas was moved to Steam, Community, and Ann Arbor Open, teaching all different social studies topics. Vargo was moved to Tappan Middle School, teaching English.
The retirement of government and economics teacher Catrina Vaughn created space on staff to bring Thomas back into the Skyline staff with help from department chair Chad Bickle. “They were waiting to see if Mrs. Vaughn was going to retire,” Thomas said, “and when she did, we moved forward…but the school year had already started for teachers,”.
Vargo had a much more complicated process getting back into Skyline compared to Thomas during the 2025 summer. “I saw that there was a job posting…someone retired in the [Skyline] English department,” said Vargo. “It was discouraging at first, as they had said, if you wanted to come back, that the district’s policy was that they would give you an interview, basically, but that you would have to interview to get your job back.”
Vargo later found out about an “Amendment to the policies,” which gives teachers the right to return up to three years if there was an opening in the school they were transferred from. Skyline was able to bring Vargo back before school began in late August.
The Spring 2024 staff cuts were a sudden, shocking moment for teachers, leaving them barely enough time to prepare. Teachers only got a two-day notice for the reassigning/cutting before the school year ended.
Vargo notes, “I think it was the second to last day before the school year ended that I received an email from Ms. Elmore stating that she needed to talk with me. When I met with her in her office, she revealed that I was being transferred to Tappan. Since I had all seniors that trimester, I didn’t have students for the last couple of weeks of school. If they had let me know sooner, I would have had that time to process and pack. Instead, I came to school on the first day of summer to pack my boxes.”
Currently, Thomas teaches Economics, both macro and micro, along with government. Vargo teaches English 9 and 10.
