Hymel is back at MCHS as principal

When newly hired Morgan City High School Principal Tim Hymel left the Morgan City school as a 1978 graduate, he never imagined he would return in the twilight of his education career as its principal.
Hymel wasn’t supposed to be in education at all.
“A bad economy is what drove me into education,” he said Thursday. “I worked at Morgan City Bank for three years as a loan officer from ’82-85, and then in ’85, the economy got so bad, I actually got a raise coming into teaching, making $12,000 a year.
“That’s how bad it was in the banking world, so I came, tried it out and ended up, this is my 35th year in education.”
Hymel, who was named principal in June, previously served as principal at Berwick Junior High before taking the last year off for personal reasons.
Hymel also serves on the Morgan City Council.
While the Morgan City principal position was something he always thought about, he said just being a principal was his dream job.
“I got my shot at Berwick Junior High, and I think we had a lot of success while I was there, and I enjoyed it,” Hymel said.
However, he said he needed a year off and just so happened, the timing worked out for this position.
“I was getting ready to retire, and if it wouldn’t have opened up, I probably would have retired,” Hymel said.
While academics are Hymel’s top priority, the former Nicholls State baseball player and Morgan City High baseball coach said athletics are right under that.
“I’m a person that believes in academics, but I also believe in athletics because being an ex-athlete, I know the benefits of teamwork and perseverance,” he said.
Hymel said sometimes athletics teaches things that can’t be taught in the classroom, while it’s also good for school discipline to have coaches as teachers.
“Plus, kids who are not academically motivated that want to play sports have to make the grades to play sports, so athletics offers so many things to kids that’s beneficial to the whole school,” he said.
Other goals Hymel has are to enhance vocational opportunities such as a machinist class and possibly a drone class.
“COVID is probably going to put some dampers on some of the things that we would want to implement, but we want to offer opportunities for every kid to find what their mission in life is, what they’re good at,” he said.
Hymel said that can be achieved through academics and athletics.
Hymel also said he would like to have a Drama Club and a digital media class that, along with serving as a yearbook class, would make videos to promote the school.
“Our school has so much to offer that I don’t think people really know about,” he said.
As for COVID 19’s impact on the school once classes resume in the fall, Hymel said students and teachers need to be ready for changes throughout and just to adapt.
“All I can tell you is the only thing that’s going to be consistent in this is change. … It’s going to change based on the stage of the virus,” he said.
Hymel said there has been potential talk of splitting the school population in half and having students attend on alternate days. Making hallways and stairwells one way also have been talked about.
As he begins his term as Morgan City principal, Hymel said he invites the community to come and see what Morgan City High has to offer.
“My door will always be open,” he said. “Anything we can do to help the community.”
Hymel said Morgan City is “a community school.
“We want to be part of the community and do everything in our power to be a part of the community and want the community to be involved with us,” he said.