Alumni come back to teach at the school

Choir+teacher+Brandon+Fantozzi%2C+athletic+department+secretary+Rose+Campos+and+director+of+student+services%2C+and+David+Pater+all+graduated+from+West+Chicago+High+School.

Photo by Emily Wissemes

Choir teacher Brandon Fantozzi, athletic department secretary Rose Campos and director of student services, and David Pater all graduated from West Chicago High School.

By Hector Cervantes, Reporter

Some people never visit their high school, but alumni who come back to work at the same high school are able to see their school through a new perspective.

Brandon Fantozzi, Rose Campos, and David Pater are some of the many teachers who decided to come back to their stomping grounds.

Athletic secretary Campos graduated in 1973. Campos attended College of DuPage and Waubonsie Valley and she took her classes while working with AT&T.

She majored in electronics.

“I was the secretary of the deans’ office when I first got here. Then I worked for the human resources director in the district office. After that I came here in the athletic department,” Campos said.

Campos noted how the school improves every year.

“With the staff, curriculum, improvements to the building has taken place since I have been here,” Campos said.

Campos’ favorite high school memory was field biology with Mr. Dichtl.

“I took the class because I was not too keen on dissecting animals.  My favorite part was that we had a field trip every week. The most memorable one was the trip to Herrick’s Lake in Warrenville,” Campos said.

While on the trip to Herrick’s Lake, the class had to measure the circumference and the depth of the lake.

“My classmates Valerie Hall, Ofelia Vela and I hopped in a canoe and made it to the center of the lake. Neither of us really knew how to steer the canoe, so we were going in circles and laughing so much that Mr. Dichtl had to come out and save us,” Campos said.

As a staff member, Campos enjoys the camaraderie of the school.

“Everyone here is so nice and so willing to help and they are just there for us. Anytime somebody has a question you can always go to somebody and if they don’t know the question they will forward them to somebody who knows the question,” Campos said.

Pater is the director of student services and he graduated in 2002.

He played football all four years, basketball freshman through sophomore year and all four years of baseball.

“This is a great place. I loved every part of being a student I liked the campus and the kids that are here. It really is a unique place,” Pater said.

Pater wanted to come back to the high school and teach.

“This place is special to me. I always dreamed of coming back and I had the opportunity and I didn’t want to pass it up,” Pater said.

Pater found his junior and senior year to be the most memorable.

“It was more enjoyable (as an upperclassman) because you create lasting friendships. Freshman and sophomore year you are trying to figure things out and by my junior year I had lasting friendships,” Pater said.

Pater also enjoyed the friendships he made through sports

Pater coached football from 2012-2015.

“Within coaching, it is always nice since I walked in the same locker room and the same hallway as an athlete and now I am a coach.  I relate back to the kids that I was in your shoes. When I talk to students I can relate back to them,” Pater said.

Choir director Fantozzi is another alumnus who graduated in 1995. He went to the University of Illinois and he received his bachelor degrees in music education and a masters educational arts and leadership at the University of Aurora.

“My favorite memory was playing football and the spring musical ‘Oklahoma’ my senior year,” Fantozzi said.

Fantozzi played football, baseball and swam. He also was in band, choir, orchestra, Foreign Language Club, and he was a peer tutor.

“This is my fifteenth year here. I direct four choirs and I teach music technology. I help the marching band and I vocal direct the spring musical,” Fantozzi said.