Kevin McCarthy has been teaching English 9 and AP Language and Composition at Central Kitsap High School since 2007; he’s also taught English as a Second Language. Before he worked in Washington, he was attending Sonoma State University for his English degrees. After completing two years of community college in 1996, he moved to California.
“I lived in southern California and we lived really close to Anaheim stadium where the Los Angeles Angels played,” McCarthy said. “You could go and meet ball players and stuff like that and get their autographs.”
This became a way for McCarthy to make money after school, often able to go get these autographs after school. McCarthy eventually found out through a friend that if he went to Hollywood, he could make more money taking pictures of celebrities. While he took the photos and got the autographs in Hollywood while he was attending college, he struggled to balance the two while also doing well in school.
“My first semester of junior college my grades weren’t very good, and you know what happened, my dad threatened me,” McCarthy said. “He said ‘look, we’re not going to pay for your college if you’re going to get bad grades. So you need to figure it out. Do you want to go to school or do you want to continue to do this?”
After making the decision to quit going photographing athletes and started to focus more on college. Since all of McCarthy’s classes were from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., he became a substitute teacher as a way to make money after school. After teaching as a substitute teacher through college and grad school he became a substitute in Washington from 2003 to 2005. While McCarthy was a substitute teacher, he taught a class called “Step to College,” which turned into a long-term job for the year.
“My first teaching job I was a part time employee at a university in Northern California,” McCarthy said. “Then when I moved to Washington, the first job I got was teaching eighth grade up in North Kitsap and I did two years of that then I applied here.”
Through teaching at Kingston Middle School, McCarthy realized how out of the control the school was and wanted to teach better content to better behaved kids. Through teaching in Kitsap, McCarthy heard of CKHS’ good reputation regarding its popularity in the community.
“At the end of [my] two years, I went home and I said that if I don’t leave this school I have to leave the profession,” McCarthy said. “It was just a really out of control school and there were no consequences for behavior.”
When McCarthy left KMS, he applied to work at CKHS, where he was hired as an English teacher. For the 19 years McCarthy has been working here, he’s bonded with staff and students alike, but particularly the Career Coordinator Tyler Hunt who’s worked at CKHS for 21 years. Hunt even considering McCarthy an artist of teaching the English language, greatly respecting his classroom instruction.
“I’ve come to respect him greatly for his classroom instruction,” Hunt said. “My first real experience to be able to see him in the classroom was when I was [an] AP test coordinator for years in the old building and my work and collaborating with him and communicating which students are taking tests, which ones aren’t and connecting with them about details of it. I also had the opportunity to observe him teach during that time, and in my opinion he’s an artist.”
With a lot of praise, McCarthy has been seen as a great teacher by his friends, peers and students. Hunt even considered him an artist of teaching the English language, helping students feel prepared for the future. For years McCarthy has helped his students feel prepared for the future by individually helping them one on one to understand what they need to do and how to do it properly, while keeping the classroom environment friendly and welcoming.
“What makes him a good teacher is he is willing to get one on one with students and help them individually with what they need,” English 9 student Mason Honsa said.
