Joseph Howard was the FHS choir teacher for the past 31 years, before retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Starting this school year, Christopher Filice, who taught for eight years at Livermore High School, was hired by FHS to take over Howard’s role.  

“It’s been really great stepping in after [Howard],” Filice said. “He helped to build a culture where people just like singing so everyone that had Mr. Howard last year that’s in choir this year, fundamentally just likes singing. I teach differently than Mr. Howard, but that is like the best gift he could have given me is a room full of kids who like singing.” 

Besides choir, Filice is the supervisor for the Glee Club, run by senior Rose Madsen and junior Eliza Lyon. He enjoys being the advisor and has some exciting news regarding the club. The name of the club is being changed to the Not-quite-choir-club.

“And one thing I really like about it is it’s a lot of students who are in choir, but then it’s also many students like you [Greta] who are interested in singing, who, for whatever reason, aren’t in choir this year.” Filice said. 

Filice talks about his FHS experience so far. After teaching at the same school for years, Filice is excited to start here at FHS. 

“I feel like here there’s a really strong culture of teaching and learning, like amongst students and staff, so everyone takes learning seriously and I think that’s really cool,” Filice said.