New faces, new places: Buffs welcome 10 staff to the Herd

By MAKENZIE FORSBERG, DANIEL GARCIA & MARIAH RAMIREZ
The Tower

With a new school year, comes many new faces at Manteca High.

In total, there are 10 staff members joining the Herd. The roles obtained by the new staff include the transitional/teaching department, the Resource Specialist Program, English Language Development, and Academic & Vocational Life Skills.

The new staff have received a warm welcome from staff around campus and were prepared for the school year.

“Everybody’s been really welcoming — campus monitors, teachers, the women in the office, and everybody has been coming up and checking on me,” Ashlee Teczon said. “… Everybody, has been coming up and checking on me and asking how things are going. So, you know, as a newer teacher to this campus, that actually makes me feel good. It means you see me, and I’m being heard.”

The school population has climbed each year over the last five, according to records obtained by The Tower. With nearly 1,900 students comes the need for more educators. To combat this, Manteca High Unified School District has hired educators or moved them from school to school, like Teczon and fellow teacher Scott McHenry, both transplants from East Union High School.

“The principal, Mrs. Peterson, and I worked together at East Union. She used to be our assistant principal there and a position here opened up. She reached out to me and asked if I’d consider moving here,” Teczon said. “I just thought, you know what, an opportunity is opening up. She’s giving me that opportunity. Why not take it? So that was my decision.”

Teczon teaches Living Earth and AP Environmental Science and believes her students are very important.

“I like to connect with my students. I think relationship-building with kids is the most important,” Teczon said.

McHenry is the newest addition to the world language department. He teaches Spanish, specializing in teaching Spanish I. He has been teaching for 30 years and was inspired to teach after living in Mexico for a few years as a missionary. There, he learned the language and developed a love for the culture. He returned to the United States to pursue his degree in Spanish and a career in the classroom.

“I enjoy teaching students because that’s where our future,” McHenry said.

As a new teacher at Manteca High this year, McHenry said he feels like he did in his very first year of instruction.

“My year has been busy. Very busy,” he said. “Going to a new school is like having to start all over again.”

Janet Gomes teaches math, but more specifically transitional algebra. As one of the new staff members on campus, Gomes stated that a struggle for her would be how different it is from teaching in elementary to now teaching high school students.

She said that in elementary school she was less of a teacher and more of an aid in the classroom.

“I now am not the one assisting and now I’m the one in charge of study plans,” said Gomes, who is now tasked with daily lesson plans and feels like she has more responsibility to teach her students.

“I have really enjoyed my time here at Manteca, but it’s also been challenging because there are a lot of different changes between elementary school and high school when it comes to case management,” she said. “I’m still trying to learn all the differences and adjust to that, but I’m excited for the rest of the school year.”