By Emily Lockwood
Life Editor
With the loss of the original teacher, a long-term substitute, and various other substitutes, Kimberly Romero’s Spanish class has felt some disconnect in the classroom.
Romero left at the end of April on maternity leave for the delivery of her baby. Her students had been taken over by a long-term substitute Mrs. Pelka, who taught until she suffered from an injury.
“The department interviewed one substitute that would teach the class for the duration of Romero’s maternity leave,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said. “That substitute, unfortunately, suffered from an injury where she had to undergo emergency surgery.”
This injury caused Mrs. Pelka to be out of the class for four weeks. In place of that substitute, the department made the decision to hire a day-to-day substitute for Romero’s Spanish class until they found a more permanent solution.
“I made the decision at that point, along with the support of the district, to have Vice Principal Jennie Wright and I as well as other current Spanish teachers cover Romero’s class until we could find another substitute,” Mancilla said.
Spanish teachers and vice principals such as Felise Shapiro, Sandra Martinez- Sellan, Jennie Wright, and Mancilla substituted for the class. Every period received a different substitute who had different daily agendas for the students.
“Even though every period was a different substitute, the students were getting people who knew and understood the curriculum very well,” Wright said.
Many students felt like they were missing out on some of the material. In addition, some students feel that it is difficult to work with the different teachers along with the inconsistency in the classroom.
“We don’t learn anything anymore and I feel like I am not learning nearly as much as the students with regular teachers,” junior William Goodwin said.
The several teachers collaborated and covered Romero’s class for two weeks. During this time the district was looking for a permanent substitute to teach the class until Romero returned.
“We reached out to other districts in order to find a long term substitute with Spanish credentials,” Mancilla said. “We hired Victoria Hernandez who will be there until Romero gets back, which is the week of finals.”
Hernandez covers three Spanish 5-6 classes as well as two Spanish 7-8 classes. When she arrived she had to work on making sure that all the classes were learning the same things.
“When I got here I had to contact the other Spanish teachers that had taught so I could find out what needed to be covered in each period,” Hernandez said.
In class, Hernandez has been coming up with activities and lesson plans to prepare students for their final. She has spoken with other Spanish teachers such as Shapiro to find out what needs to be covered.
“The kids are ready for summer, and I do have compassion for them, but we need to stay focused and finish up the school year,” Hernandez said.
At this point in the year, the students are mainly reviewing for their Spanish final. Not a lot of new material is being covered. According to some students, there is concern that they are not well prepared.
“The class has been really chaotic,” junior Lauren Watts said. “Also, the whole class feels like we haven’t been learning as much as we need to and we all miss Mrs. Romero.”
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