Mr Tagg:
Chapman Tagg grew up here in Leesburg. He enjoys hanging out with family as well as playing and watching sports. This includes basketball, football, and golf. Tagg has always wanted to be a teacher, and this is Tagg’s fourth year. He taught three years of economics and government at Madison High School in Idaho prior to coming to County. Tagg currently teaches World History I and US VA History. “Teaching is great because you get to interact with the youth on a daily basis, and I think that’s a really powerful thing. You get to see people every day and you see them grow rapidly, I feel lucky everyday coming to work.”
Mr. Gallant:
Matthew Gallant grew up in Massachusetts and went to college in New Hampshire before eventually moving to the Northern Virginia area. Gallant enjoys woodworking and building things in his free time. This is Gallant’s 19th year teaching. For nine years he taught at a New Hampshire high school, then a middle school in Prince William County before going to teach at a DC charter school. He taught for a few more years before coming here to County. Before becoming a teacher, Gallant worked in jobs including sales, transportation, and even a juvenile detention counselor. He also earned his real estate license this past year. Despite these many jobs, Gallant has stuck to teaching. “When you finally start something like this, you realize, ‘wow,’ even a bad day here is better than my best day there,” Gallant said. Gallant always liked English class in school as well as reading. He has a degree in English and teaching. Gallant currently teaches three Honors English 11 classes and two Academic English 11 classes.
Chief Martinez:
Jesus Martinez grew up in El Paso, Texas. Martinez enjoys being outdoors and exploring trails. He also likes to watch movies in the theater. Out of high school, Martinez was still figuring out what he wanted to do. He decided to follow his brother and join the Naval Academy. “When I got there, I realized ‘maybe this is not for me,’ but I liked the idea of being a chief. I had some chiefs and senior chiefs there that really impressed me,” Martinez said. Martinez retired in July 2024 after 20 years of service in the Navy. In that time he had deployments in Afghanistan, the Philippines, as well and Japan and Korea. Martinez had experience as an instructor in the Navy, but this is his first time teaching high school students. He now teaches the NS2 class. Martinez saw a need and an importance to teach high school students. He explained an experience of being a boot camp instructor. “I saw all the people coming in from the civilian sector to try and become a sailor. “One of the things that I saw was a lot of people had not received a lot of good direction coming up, and that kind of showed me that there was a lot of good work that could be done in high school,” Martinez said. “It’s not the right thing for everyone, but you can still learn a lot of really useful, beneficial things and take them with you as a civilian, to college and into the workforce. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to try and help kids, As many as I could,” Martinez said.
