Foothill will be expecting changes in the upcoming school year as some current teachers take on the challenge of teaching new subjects and another takes on the challenge of caring for her soon-to-be-born son.
Next year, Bioscience Academy Director Darcy Duffy will be taking a 50 percent leave of absence in order to care for her first child, and she is therefore dropping her position as ASB Advisor. English teacher Melanie “Captain” Lindsey will then fill this open position.
“Part of [leaving] is a lot of relief and part of it is also a lot of ‘oh gosh good luck,’ but I know she will do great,” Duffy said. “She’s had lots of experience with the senior class and a lot of their events, so this will just be a new challenge to juggle with her other stuff.”
Lindsey said she feels “excited and terrified, all at the same time.” She has multiple ideas for the upcoming school year, but she intends to keep them as surprises.
“I’ve got lots of ideas, but that doesn’t mean they will all happen just because I have the ideas. But I have big, big visions,” Lindsey said.
Junior Carson Graves is going to be the Associated Student Body President next year, and believes that gaining a new perspective for the class will be good for the program next year.
“Change is always good,” he said. “I feel like we will have a different approach to leadership next year. I think we will be focusing more on actual leadership characteristics and what it means being a leader and what it takes to be a leader and so on.”
Not only will the new change in leadership affect the ASB program itself, but it may also affect other programs.
Since Duffy won’t be juggling her ASB responsibilities and her Bioscience Academy responsibilities anymore, the science programs might be subject to small changes.
“If anything were to change, it might get better just because her time won’t be divided between ASB and science, especially in terms of The Academy. I think things are going to get better, not that things aren’t already good though,” physiology and Medical Technology teacher Mika Anderson said.
People who are interested in taking Psychology in the future should also be prepared for changes. In order for Lindsey to tackle the position of ASB Advisor, she had to drop her Advanced Placement Psychology class, which was not an easy decision for her.
“I cried. A lot. That’s what happened first, and then I looked into what would be best for the students and what’s going to be best for the teacher who has to take over whatever I don’t teach. It was more fair for me to keep [English] and have somebody else take AP Psychology,” she said.
Nevertheless, students and teachers are still excited for the change that is in the near future.
“I think that Captain will be a great leader. I have never had her, but I have heard lots of positive things that make me certain she will keep us on track,” junior Mallory McPherson-Wehan said.
“Captain has always had this reputation of being able to connect with the students, either by sheer force or by charisma or just because she’s Captain,” Anderson said. “I just see her picking up the ball and running for it. I don’t expect a fall out.”
