By Valerie Uong ‘27
“Obviously the craziest memory was almost getting beaten up by a student and then having it get recorded and then go viral,” said Assistant Principal Charles Dembrosky. If that’s not crazy enough, did you know Brody Bonadio went to high school with three people who were on major Netflix shows? If you have ever wondered what goes on in your teachers’ lives behind the scenes—underneath all of the professionalism, strict lessons, rules, and teaching wisdom— you might be surprised at what stories they have to tell.
Assistant Principal Charles Dembrosky, a very well known person at CV, is more interesting than students may assume. When asked the question, “what did your childhood self think you would’ve been doing right now?” he answered, “I would have definitely thought I was in jail. I was definitely suspended multiple times in grade school.”
In one of his suspension stories, Dembrosky said he had been walking around school throwing his baseball up and down when it had accidentally knocked into a sprinkler head, spraying water everywhere. In an attempt to get out of trouble, he put up his hood and walked away from the scene. However, what he didn’t realize was that he was still tossing the baseball–which was a dead give away that he was the culprit–and was caught and given a suspension.
He also has a past of being vegan and rescuing a turkey with his wife. They still get updates about the turkey today.
Before starting his career in education, Dembrosky originally planned to go into pre-med and become an occupational therapist, having finished his degree in exercise physiology. He is now completing his doctorate in education and plans to graduate in 4 months.
In music teacher Elizabeth Carney’s case, her goals were to become a chef or a veterinarian when she was in middle school. However, she “always had an inclination for music,” and chose to switch paths and pursued a career in music instead when she entered high school.
She stated, “I think when I retire I’ll still be involved with music, but I would like to do things with maybe animal rescue and cook some more.”
Carney also shared that her cousin has a career in Hollywood as a stunt man, being featured in the popular show Star Trek and coordinating their stunts.
She mentioned having a side hustle of selling items she buys but doesn’t need on Facebook Marketplace. She connected this to a fun childhood memory with one of her older brothers. He was a large but very shy man who enjoyed fixing up cars in his free time. He would purchase used car parts off of Facebook Marketplace, but would rely on 13-year-old Carney to negotiate prices and find out information from the sellers.
Someone else who has dealt in the online marketplace is, unsurprisingly, business teacher Brody Bonadio. As an avid sports enthusiast, he had always collected and sold sports memorabilia. He worked with his father’s friend who owns a small E-Bay business during some summers.
He called it “essentially like investing but just with sports stuff,” adding, “I feel like I know more about sports than I do about the stock market, so it’s easier for me.”
A fun fact Bonadio shared is that he went to high school with people who were on major Netflix TV shows, some of whom are quite famous. The first, and most popular, TV star was Love Island’s season 6 Kaylor Martin. The second was his neighbor who starred in one of the seasons of Too Hot to Handle and lastly one of his friends from high school was featured in Mr. Beast’s Squid Game challenge.
Bonadio also enjoys traveling, visiting countries like Jamaica, Mexico, and the Bahamas, as well as having been to Disney “like 40 times.”
English teacher Matthew Brubaker also has had several interesting side hustles.
Over the many summers of his teaching career, Brubaker has had jobs in varying industries out of pure boredom. He was employed at a landscaping company, worked for a bicycle shop, painted the insides of houses, and was even a janitor for the Barnstormers stadium.
“In my adult life though, I think my other goal would be to be a lawyer. I like reading and potentially helping people. So I want to use my love for reading and my love for helping people,” Brubaker said.
Something else Brubaker is passionate about is his friendships. “The people who respect you for you will always understand why you do what you do,” is what he advised. He added that real friendships help you stay true to yourself, encourage you to stick to your morals and values, and pick you up when things go wrong.
One of his favorite memories during his time in high school was doing weird clothing competitions with his friends.
Brubaker also enjoys listening to heavy metal music, and is even in a heavy metal band himself.
Our teachers, like everyone else, have lives of their own. They’ve all experienced hardships, adversity, and have made mistakes. Through it all, they’ve grown and turned those lessons and memories into some of the personal stories shared in this article. All you need to do now is be curious enough to look for the rest.