As you walk into his room, it’s clean and organized, other than the chalkboards that his students draw on.

Once you reach his desk, there is this large section he uses for photos of his son; some are from last year. As you survey the room, you would never guess that he is leaving after this year.

Paul Schuler has been working here at McCallum for 10 years after working a year at Dobie Middle School. At McCallum, Mr. Schuler taught math and computer science. His current and former students say he was easy to work with.

Many of those students will miss him, myself included.

The students interviewed for this story all had good things to say about Mr. Schuler.

“I’m going to miss how friendly and caring he is to his students,” Selen Sakaoglu said. “I enjoyed the way he taught us. I felt the effort he made to help us succeed.”

And freshman Pearl Poss said, “I think I’ll miss him sassing everyone in the class and showing us pictures of his child every day.”

Maesia McDonald, a student who had him last year, but no longer goes to this school said, “I’m going to miss his jokes.”

Mr. Schuler always plays along with his students and makes sure that we were enjoying what we learned.

What I will personally miss about Mr. Schuler is the time and effort he puts into his school life and sharing little glimpses of his family life as well.

It’s unfortunate that he is leaving.

He will teach next year at Westlake High School because he is moving to a new home closer to the school. At Westlake, Mr. Schuler will still be teaching math, but he will also be teaching engineering instead of computer science like he teaches here.

Mr. Schuler claimed that he is “really excited to teach something new and [that] engineering seems pretty cool.”

He had also mentioned that he will miss McCallum.

Mr. Schuler also said that he was proud that he started the McCallum computer science program and that he hopes it will continue to grow even larger after he leaves. He says that he will “remember all of the fun times that [he] had with the kids [he’s] had throughout the years,” and the amazing faculty that has helped and supported him with his first couple of years teaching here and more recently after the birth of his son.

When I had asked Mr. Schuler what he has learned from teaching at McCallum, he told me, “The biggest
takeaway that I had was that anyone can really learn anything. … I think that’s true about anybody, as long as they give themselves a chance.”

I totally concur with his statement.

When I first entered high school, I thought math really wasn’t for me, but with Mr. Schuler’s help, I was able to actually enjoy the subject. I’m truly grateful that I was able to have Mr. Schuler as my math teacher.

Westlake High School is getting one of McCallum’s finest teachers. He will be dearly missed.