Kimberly Taylor loves to read. That’s part of the reason why she took the job at Liberty as the library assistant.

“I love the environment, I love Liberty High School. I had subbed here a lot so when the job became available it was a no brainer for me,” Taylor said. “It was a dream job and I just wanted to enjoy work everyday.”

Taylor listens to audiobooks more than she reads. That hasn’t stopped her from going through as many books as possible. She usually reads one to two books a week.

Taylor listens to books mainly when she was in the car or when she’s cooking dinner. 

“I read and listened to 132 books in 2024,” Taylor said. 

Taylor loves to read all across genres. Whether it be romance or historical fiction.

“It depends on what mood I’m in. I love historical fiction. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is one of my all time favorite,” Taylor said.

Taylor also reads lots of books at Liberty.

“I love a book called ‘Amelia Unabridged.’ It has been my favorite since coming to Liberty in our collection,” Taylor said. 

Her favorite book of 2024 was “The Women” by Kristin Hannah. She also read the whole dystopian series called ‘Scythe’ by Neal Shusterman and the whole science fiction series “Michael Vey” by Richard Paul Evans.

Taylor recommends every student to try to read books.

“Reading is the best way to get your mind active and that’s important for all classes. When you use your brain it helps with all other things as well,” Taylor said.

“I have so many more book recommendations, just stop by the library and ask,” Taylor said.

Ryan Barnes is a computer sciences teacher that has been here since 2015. While Barnes does work at Liberty, he coaches at not only one different school but two. 

“So how it works is pretty simple, actually, I have to basically everyday during the fall and spring seasons, when the buses leave I haul out of here,” Barnes said. “I tell kids I can’t stick around after school. If you need to make up tests or whatever, your options are before school or Nest Time. That’s all I have.”

Barnes also says that he has winter off to help kids because that is his only season he doesn’t coach. 

“I coach football over at Holt because that’s where my kids will go and I get the opportunity to coach them and the opportunity just came to me four years ago. I’ve also been coaching golf over at North Point and I actually started the program,” Barnes said. 

He teaches two classes here being personal finance and the other half of the day he teaches lots of computer sciences. 

The only challenges Barnes faces with coaching at different schools is the connections with the kids.

“It’s only hard in the end to make connections with the kids, but for football it’s a lot easier because we start in the summer,” Barnes said.

Ashley Bradley is an art teacher here and teaches Art Fundamentals, Painting, and Drawing. 

Bradley has several students every day who frequently visit her for a quick chat and to check up on each other. 

“Oh, I have a student that comes and sees me every morning. It’s just small, but it’s sweet. It’s very nice,” Bradley explained. 

Bradley said she feels as if she gets students that are more “out of the box” and that are different. 

“It’s fun just to hang out with people like that are interesting and fun. I think because I’m not very loud. They like to see that it’s okay to be quiet too sometimes,” Bradley said.

In Bradley’s free time, she enjoys going to concerts with friends and frequently travels, as well. 

“Well, I love music. That’s like a huge part of my life. Going to see shows with friends and traveling and it’s like my favorite thing,” Bradley said. 

“I kind of have all over the place music taste. But country, for sure, more like Americana, and not the country you’d normally hear on the radio.” 

Alexander Schaper is an English teacher and teaches Advanced English 1, English 1, and AP Lit and Comp. 

In his free time, Schaper enjoys going to see plays down at the Fox and often runs into students there. 

“You know my life outside of school, not that it’s super duper interesting, but it’s kind of fun when they see it in a different light,” Schaper said. “Some of them I’ve run into, like at the Fox downtown for some musical that’s in town. And they’re like, ‘oh my gosh, you like this stuff’ and you know, I love plays and it’s just kind of fun when your interests collide and they learn something interesting about you.” 

Not only does Schaper enjoy watching plays downtown at the Fox, he also enjoys playing the guitar as well.

“Yeah, it was like around 2020, so lot’s of time indoors. There was a band called Vulfpeck, which is kind of a funk band that started to get really popular around that time and their bass player, his name is Joe Dart. I was just totally blown away with how good he was. You know, it was just really influential.”

Some other musical inspirations of Schaper are the singer-songwriter Prince, and Tal Lokenfeld from the band incubus. 

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Prince. And you know, his ability to play all sorts of instruments was really admirable to me,” Schaper said. 

“There was a bassist named Tal Lokenfeld, who has been playing for one of my favorite bands from when I was in middle school called Incubus, and she’s a really amazing bassist. So yeah, it’s been cool to get on the internet and just watch people do their thing. It’s really, really cool.”