Fifth grade teacher Samantha Isaac takes advantage of her classroom being at something of a crossroads inside Roy A. Hunt Elementary School in Arnold.

Isaac is often outside her door, extending her influence beyond the students in her room.

“She’s out in the hallway talking with students, giving them fist bumps and high-fives,” said sixth grade teacher Dana Harclerode, a colleague and friend of Isaac since they were in seventh grade together. “Even the little third graders, they recognize her throughout the building as they go through the grade levels.”

A teacher in the New Kensington-Arnold School District since starting as a substitute in 1997, Isaac is so well known and beloved that every year Co-Principal Todd Kutchak gets requests from parents and students to be in her class.

“She makes connections with some of our toughest students,” Harclerode said. “It seems like she has that special gift to connect with any type of student that she comes across in her classroom. They remember her forever because of those connections. Those connections are what make her such an amazing teacher.”

Helping Isaac, 48, connect with students is that she knows where they come from. A Harmar resident, she was born and raised in Arnold and is a 1992 New Kensington-Arnold graduate. She earned an elementary education degree from Edinboro University and a master’s in education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

She teaches language arts — reading, grammar and spelling — and also has taught social studies.

Her parents also were teachers and attended Edinboro. Her mother, Paulette Yurchick, who died in November, taught in the district. Her father, Doug Isaac, was a teacher and tennis coach in Plum; he died in September 2020.

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “I always liked being around kids. I like being around kids more in general. I’m a big kid myself. The kids know that. That makes it fun.”

Every year, Isaac said, she takes an interest inventory of her students to connect with them.

“I try to find something to bond with them,” she said. “That way, I always have something to talk with them about. It helps.”

But while she was a class clown as a student herself and remains a self-described “goofball” who likes to have fun in class, Isaac doesn’t surrender her position of authority as her students’ teacher. At just 5 feet tall, she says she’s someone who is “fun-sized,” down to earth and able to take away their recess.

She gives respect — and expects it in return.

“You don’t mess with Ms. Isaac,” said fellow fifth grade teacher Carrie Szlachetka. “Don’t mistake the kindness for weakness. These are my expectations and I’ll be here for you, but I’m not your doormat.”

Isaac said the only time she will yell at a student is when they are disrespectful. But, still, she won’t let them go home without talking to them — that while she didn’t like their behavior, it’s over now, and they can move on. She makes sure they go home on a positive note.

“She’ll circle back around and help them learn to make better choices,” Szlachetka said. “She doesn’t hold a grudge. It’s always a teachable moment.”

Although Isaac is strict and runs a tight ship, Kutchak said students strive to please her.

“Her kids love her,” he said. “She gets involved with the students and in their lives. She makes it personal with them. She shows interest in what the kids have interest in. Any time we have activities, she participates.”

Isaac has done CrossFit for nine years, a workout she says helps her physically and mentally. She uses the strength she has gained through it to enthrall students, such as doing handstand pushups during a pep rally and beating the entire football team in a planking contest when the team visited during lunch to get students to come to the elementary night game.

“She puts herself out there and gets involved, and the kids love it,” Kutchak said. “She’s what we look for in teachers.”

Stephanie Gardlock of New Kensington is a 2012 Valley graduate who had Isaac as a teacher.

“She was always the teacher all the kids wanted to have. When you were in fourth grade and going into fifth grade, everyone was excited if they had Ms. Isaac,” she said. “She makes every kid feel important when they’re in her class.”

Gardlock now works with Isaac, starting as a guidance counselor at Hunt this school year. Her office is around a corner from Isaac’s classroom, and they see each other every day.

“It feels like I have the same relationship I had with her as a student,” she said. “She’s just as willing to help me now as when I was her student, which is really nice.”

Isaac said it’s the kids that keep her teaching.

“It burns you out. It is stressful. I bring it home, and I worry about the kids,” she said. “My energy level has to be way up all the time. You have to entertain these kids. If they know you care and you love them, they’re going to work better for you.”

Isaac knows that, for some students, the encouraging fist bump or elbow she gives them in the hall might be the only positive thing they experience all day.

“Kids just want loved. They want positive attention,” she said. “That’s what I do for them.”

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