With the new school year comes the loss and gain of new teachers and faculty. At the Bellarion, we want to introduce and have everyone get to know the latest and greatest Bobcats.

Mr. Ritz is Bel Air High School’s new assistant principle, assigned to preside over the freshmen class. Previously, Mr. Ritz taught biology at Magnolia Middle School, where he was for 12 years. He’s new to the administration role, but has been doing similar work when at Magnolia and looks forward to this new opportunity. He comes from a family of educators, as both his parents and some of his aunts and uncles worked as teachers and his great grandfather worked as an administrator.

Outside of teaching, Mr. Ritz has coached Girls’ Soccer and Girls’ Lacrosse at C. Milton Wright High School. He’s still plugged into the lacrosse community, as he also previously coached an Under Armor team and national team.

To the students at Bel Air, he gave the following advice: “Get out there, find clubs, organizations, sports, or some way to get involved, because there’s plenty of stuff to do at Bel Air.”

Mrs. McKinney is also new the faculty of the school, working in the guidance office for students Q-Z. She’s a recent grad from Kutztown University, and actually switched her career path. She intended to be an elementary school consoler but decided that secondary schools would be better suited to her skill set.  She loves interacting with and being around people, and hopes that consoling BAHS students will allow her to do so.

Mrs. McKinney enjoys travelling having previously been to United Kingdom and Ireland and hopes to go other places soon. She’s new not only to the school, but also Harford County, and hopes that she can find a community and church to plug into in the near future.

She gives similar advice to the student body, saying “For the students to have a successful year, they should just get involved. The more you get involved, the easier coming to school gets. And study hard.”

You can contact Mrs. McKinney or Mr. Ritz at their HCPS emails: [email protected] and [email protected]. We welcome them to the Bobcat family and look forward to the upcoming school year with them.