Meet The New 2025 Ranger Staff

This new school year, 15 new staff members join Redwood High School, each bringing a unique story.

By: Ariana Lopez and Sophia Rodriguez

Originally from Ontario, a Southern California town about three and a half hours from Visalia, Pete Siqueiros is stepping into his new role as ASB adviser and activities director.

“I went to Chaffey High School, where I played basketball, ran track and field, and competed in cross country,” Siqueiros said. “I wasn’t officially part of ASB, but I did participate in a lot of student events that connected me to the school.” Raised in the Southern California town of Ontario, about 3 and a half hours away from Visalia California, Pete Siqueiros is taking on the leadership role as the ASB adviser and activities director.

He says, “I went to Chaffey high school, I was a basketball player, I ran track and field, and for cross country. I wasn’t a part of ASB but I participated in a lot of events in the ASB role during high school.”

Starting his educational journey, Siqueiros started off in community college. He says, “I went to Mount Sac, and I transferred over to Cal Poly Pomona and I got my degree in Pedagogical Kinesiology.”

Siqueiros says “I [have] always wanted to be a PE teacher growing up and for the first eight years of my teaching career, I taught PE at the middle school level at Ridgeview middle school. I was there for 7 years and four of those years I was the athletic director.”

“I feel like that role gave me a lot of responsibility when it came to managing, organizing and working with coaches, all sport teams, student athletes, as well as my administration,” he says.

When it comes to ASB, Siqueiros says, “I was a big part in helping organize specific athletic segments that were part of the rally as well as athletic events that helped bring our teachers and students together to help build the school culture.”

After becoming the Ridgeview athletic director, and spending the last 4 years doing that, he says “I learned that it was pretty cool being a part of the school culture when it came to athletics and knowing that I was a big part of making sure that that program was organized.”

Finding joy in his work, he says “My student athletes were taking ownership of the responsibilities inside of the classroom, seeing how my program responded to that and how my coaches pretty much jumped on the same boat as me and making sure our students were living and acknowledging what it meant to be a student athlete was big. And it taught me a lot that I could help something bigger than middle school athletics and PE.”

Joyful in his decisions, Siqueiros says, “An activities director role is something that fulfills that idea of being part of something that is bigger. I definitely jumped on it and applied and I’m here now. I think my biggest decision was always wanting to grow in the education field and take on new challenges that are going to not just help me but help students that come across my classroom.”

His favorite hobbies include, “..being a part of intramural teams around town which includes basketball, participating in a running club, and going to the gym. Being a PE teacher is important to always live an active lifestyle. So living an active lifestyle has helped me stay young and feel like I have the energy to feel busy, especially the busyness of an activities director.”

The things Siqueiros is most excited for are, “…just bringing energy every single day. Staying super positive no matter what the outcomes of specific events bring. I think I’m just excited to let students and staff see that, we’re gonna bring a ton of energy every day and we’re gonna stay positive, and we’re gonna have fun throughout this school year.”

James Clyburne – Resident Science Teacher

James Clyburne, a new resident teacher working with Mr. Rojas, is a science teacher here at Redwood, grew up in Visalia, bouncing back and forth between Reedley and Visalia.

Clyburne says, “I went to Fresno State in college. And I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Science Focus in Biology, which is the educational route for biology.”

Freshly graduated this past spring, Clyburne says “I’ve started a new program with Fresno Pacific, to get my teaching credential.”

So I’ll be at Redwood for the entire year, working under Mr. Rojas to kind of get the ropes of how to teach in a biology classroom,” Clyburne says.

“I didn’t choose Redwood. I was placed under a mentor, so we had like a personality test, so they had different teachers who they could kind of match my personality and interests with. So I was matched with Mr. Rojas.”

His interest for teaching specifically Biology, grew because of his parents. He says, “ Both my parents are teachers, my mom is an elementary school teacher at Goshen Elementary, and my dad is a high school math teacher at El Diamante. And I went to El Diamante in high school, and so I had him as my math teacher, and he’s also the volleyball coach and the golf coach. So I got to watch him teach and coach quite a bit, and seeing his impact on students was really cool to me,” Clyburne says.

“So I was thinking that I could follow in those types of footsteps and then for picking Biology, it was just the subject that was most interesting to me,” Clyburne said. “I like a lot of the labs, because I like seeing how students get excited about using different tools and equipment and seeing just brainstorming and being able to experiment.

Some things Clyburne enjoys doing his free time is hiking, building Legos, and playing a lot of video games with his friends. 
He says, “I play a lot of different sports, like disc golf, regular golf. A lot of what I call campy sports, like summer sports. It’s like a spike ball and pickle ball.” 


The thing Clyburne is most excited for during his first year as a resident teacher at Redwood, is the connection he says, “I feel like I’ve gotten really good at connecting with kids. 
I’ve worked a lot at my church with youth programs and stuff. So I’m really excited to just kind of help kids because I know for me when I was in high school, there were a lot of teachers that were kind of like mentors to me.”

“You can really tell the difference between a teacher who cares about you for your grades or just in the classroom versus a teacher who cares about you more so outside of school and your progress through growing up, to being an adult. So I look forward to learning how to kind of take on a role like that and help students with their education, but also with success outside of school,” Clyburne said.

Esmeralda Suarez- Science Resident Teacher

Esmeralda Suarez is a resident teacher working with another new teacher, Antony Kappes. Teaching Earth science in the morning and biology in the afternoon.

Suarez grew up in Pixley, California, went to Tulare Western High School, and furthered her education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

She says, “I came back and I decided I wanted to get my credential and I’ll be getting that at Fresno State. I have a bachelor’s in biology, and I did take some educational courses. I taught fourth through eighth graders science topics, so they would come on field trips and then I would take them and do labs with them, like a very good one that they enjoyed was a strawberry genetics lab.”

Originally, Suarez did not want to become a teacher.

“That was not in the cards for me. I originally wanted to be a physician assistant. 
But then I started taking the courses for that, and I realized that I don’t really like the clinic scene. It was not for me,” she said. “And then I had to think, okay, I still like biology. 
What can I do with my biology degree? And that’s when I started taking classes in those teaching labs and I thought, I can do this. Like, this is good. 
And so I’m pursuing that now.”

One of Suarez’s interests is reading, “Like medical anthologies. So they talk about disease and other science topics like that. But through people’s experiences.”

Suarez is most excited to bring, “A set of fresh eyes and see if [she] can, if there’s any way to put [her] input in a way that maybe the other teachers haven’t thought of before.”

Brittney Valencia – 9th grade Assistant Principal

Brittney Valencia is Redwood’s new 9th-grade assistant principal. Valencia grew up in Woodlake from preschool through graduation.

She then went to COS, played a few sports, and transferred to Fresno State. Valencia earned her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and says she thought she was going to “teach real tinies.”

She also spent the last nine years working at the district office with new teachers and mentors from Transitional Kindergarten to Adult School, and “student taught at Houston elementary, kindergarten, [and] first grade, and I never left. That’s where I spent all my years teaching, but I did not teach the smalls. I taught the big kids, third through sixth grade. I [also] coach. I’ve coached volleyball and softball at the high school level. My last coaching for softball, besides my daughter’s young, little team, was at Mount Whitney. I had the program in 2018.”

“I absolutely love being around kids, especially older kids. That’s always been a passion of mine. Working with young kids is awesome, but older kids, these are the formative years that are important in their life,” says Valencia about her inspiration to pursue a career in school leadership and landing the role of an assistant principal.

“The ability to see the change that happens with teachers and then the connection with their students. I always knew I wanted to go to a site so I could be closer to the kids. Being at the district is amazing, but you’re removed from all the great things with you guys, at a site. And so being here at Redwood has always been a dream, I think, for most people, but that became a reality,” Valencia said.

She says, “My daughter attends school here now, and my dad graduated from Redwood High School. So now to be a leader at the site of such a great school that has so much pride in culture is an honor.”

Outside of work, Valencia says she enjoys spending time with her family.

Her two daughters, one who is a freshman that’s into art and plays instruments at Redwood, and a sixth grader who is very involved in sports.

Valencia also says that she coaches her youngest daughter’s teams for softball with her husband, and has watched her daughter’s teammates grow up.

She loves, “doing that and getting to go see [her] parents. They still live outside of Woodlake and Elderwood. Going back to my hometown is important. Knowing where my roots are, just hanging out, chilling, enjoying my time with them, and then I love to camp and be around my friends. It’s good to disconnect from things and enjoy the people that you love.”

The most important part Valencia says she has as an assistant principal here at Redwood is “connecting with students, keeping them safe, and making sure that they enjoy their time here.”

“My connection with them and their connection with school is important because we know that students who are connected and feel like they belong have the best experience in school, and that goes from when they first start school all the way through college and beyond,” Valencia said. “And so even that aspect of working with adults, like I did for the last nine years, was important because adults seem to feel connected to their site and their students. So relationships are the foundation of what we do.”

Redwood has had the largest freshman class so far with 722 students. So Valencia says her goal during her first year here, “is to make sure that [she] connects with them. It’s a lot of kids, but I want them to know who I am, I want them to know what Redwood is about. You’ve heard Dr. Gridiron reference, really elevating the tradition that we have here, so that’s all about them belonging to something, whether it’s sports, extracurricular, clubs, [and even people that are in] journalism. I was in journalism in high school.”

“So those things, letting them know they’re out there. And I’m also in charge of safety. So making sure that that’s smooth and that our kids know what to do, our staff knows what to do,” said Valencia. “Those are important, and just making sure that I’m integrated into this new culture, that kids know that they can come to me for anything and everything.”

Aaron Weaver- Ed Specialist

Aaron Weaver was born and raised in California. He attended private school through eighth grade, graduated from Golden West High School, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood development from Fresno Pacific University, followed by a master’s in special education.

Weaver says, “This is my 13th year working with students with special needs along with teaching for 13 years in the special ed setting, my wife and I coached a special needs soccer for AYO for 10 years.

“It started when I was working for Heart, the Heart After School Program. I enjoyed working with kids, and then my wife at the time worked with special needs adults, and then it just kind of grew from there,” said Weaver.

“And then that led me to Redwood after doing elementary and middle school. I heard really good things about the Redwood staff and students, so that made me make the jump over here to Redwood.”

He loves playing disc golf and volleyball, watching anime like One Piece of course. “Then I have three kiddos at home. We enjoy building Legos together. Video games are probably my number one thing next to reading,” said Weaver.

One thing Weaver wants to contribute here to Redwood is, “the positive environment. It’s been very positive my first week here, so just building that sense of community here at Redwood.”

Antony Kappes – Science Teacher

Antony Kappes is entering his tenth year of teaching science. Originally from Connecticut but considers himself a Visalia local because he grew up, “just down Giddings” for the last 33 years of his life.

Kappes says he, “went to school at Mount Whitney. So, sorry, it’s kind of a rival.” After graduation, he attended COS, went to a couple places but ultimately ended up in Fresno. Kappes earned his teaching credential at Alliance International in San Diego. He has taught at various high schools for biology and earth science along with eighth grade science.

Kappes says he always found an interest in science. He says his original plan, “was to be a paleontologist and travel around. Digging dinosaurs and going around the world. 
But that didn’t work out. You know, that’s not really a job for a family man.”

He says, “So I am married, I have three kids. So it didn’t really work out for me to be able to do that. So I looked at my skill set that I was working at the time when, prior to teaching, I was working in a sales position while I was still going to school. 
And I realized, you know, I’m pretty good at talking with people. And I think that might, you know, translate into me being able to teach since I can’t actually go out into the field and travel around.”

“So I thought, hey, you know what, I think teaching would be something that I would really like because I still get to talk about things that I enjoy, but I get to do it, you know, and also lean on my skills of being able to talk,” he said.

Kappes says, “And so for Redwood, it was a pretty easy decision. I had heard great things about it. Obviously, I didn’t grow up here. I didn’t go to Redwood, so I didn’t know exactly what that would be like, what the culture was.”

“And I actually heard from a friend of mine at the district that there was going to be a spot at Redwood and he said that it was a great school. Like, I believe his kids went here and he said, you know, I think you would really like it. I think it’d be a great fit,” said Kappes. “And so I applied for it and then just through the initial interviews with Dr. Gridiron, I just felt like it was just a different vibe. They seemed excited and energetic.”

Feeling very excited about his interviews, Kappes said, “I was really hyped when I got the call that I got the position that I was able to transfer over.”

He explains it as a, “kind of weird feeling. To be teaching at a school where everyone seems to just get along and be happy. Like even the first, the icebreaker rally, the kids seem to want to be there where in my previous experience, it was always a lot of pushback and negativity. So it just feels awesome. 
Like, I’m really excited to be here.”

Outside of the classroom, some things Kappes is passionate about is, “playing video games with his three sons. We just recently switched from console to PC, so we have a couple of computers in our spare room that’s our little gaming room. 
So right now, we’re pretty heavy into Minecraft.”

“I’m a big Lego builder. So I got a number of sets that are in the queue waiting to be built, but we have a little nice nook area behind our kitchen that is like a library,” he said. “So I have a bunch of bookshelves. I need to fill up with all my builds.”

“I’m so excited that students seem to want to be here and the kids I have are great already. And I can’t say I have a single student that doesn’t look like they want to be here and they’re not participating,” said Kappes. “I’m just really excited that I have such a good group of students that are willing to get in there and learn. So I’m really looking forward to being able to do all the things that I wish I could have done in other school’s.”

Genesis Marroquin – School Psychologist

Genesis Marroquin grew up in Exeter on a family compound. She says, “I was the only girl, so I grew up with a bunch of boys. So I quickly learned to be tough and athletic. And I grew up in a very proud Mexican household.”

Marroquin says, “My dad taught for 30 years at WoodLake High School, and that’s kind of how I got into the education system. In high school, actually, I took a psychology class and I believe my teacher’s name was Mrs. Simpson, and she just opened up the store to this whole new subject that I had no idea about, but it definitely sparked my interest.”

“I consider myself like a support staff, so I help teachers and I help them figure out ways to best support students that just need it,” Marroquin said.

“And I think what inspired me was a little bit more of my background, kind of working with students with disabilities, doing in-home therapy for kids with kids with autism or on the spectrum,” she said. “That was something that was very eye-opening to me. And I felt like a lot of my skills would help kids like that, and it was something that I enjoyed because it was like self gratification because I would see the progress of kids.”

Outside of work she says, “I play volleyball here kind of across the street at the Anthony Center. I sometimes play soccer at 1852. And
I have an 18 month old that is just keeping me very busy and, you know, we’re just always running around, going to the park and doing some water play and swimming.”

“I really want to learn about the culture here. I’ve never been to such a big school, but I feel such a presence, just on how you guys care about one another as a whole,” Marroquin said. “You guys really try to involve all the students. I mean, the rally was amazing. Gosh, that just brought so much great energy. I’m just wanting to know the redwood way. That’s where I’m going to start.”

Melissa Mease- Math Teacher

Melissa Mease moved to California two years ago from Missouri and didn’t really like where she lived.

She says, “I knew that I really liked Visalia, there’s a lot more to do here. I was in Delano the last couple years, so there’s not much there at all.”

Before becoming a teacher she was once a social worker. Mease says, “And so that is a huge part of like different lessons other than math. I don’t just teach math. We teach a lot of other lessons at the same time.”

“I’ve always been at really tiny schools, and there’s not a lot of opportunity for different types of classes. And here at Redwood, there are a lot more options available for kids,” Mease said. “Many kids don’t realize that, but not all schools have a lot of the things that Redwood has a lot to offer.”

Josh Matsumoto – English Teacher

Josh Matsumoto was born and raised in Visalia and is a Redwood alumnus.

He says he is a, “really big nerd” who loves breakdancing, playing board games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeon & Dragons, going to concerts, and is a free and easy guy who teaches English.

When Matsumoto graduated from high school, he traveled a ton. “I bought a van with my friends. We went to Venice Beach and we lived out there for a little bit,” Matsumoto says. “But then it kind of broke down, and I started realizing more about my life and the people I met. So I kind of just go through life, trying to figure things out one step at a time.”

Matsumoto says he did not want to be a teacher.

He didn’t even know he was going to, “be teaching English until, like, two years ago. But what inspired me to teach English right now is, honestly, you have these great life lessons and stories. 
You’ve got to teach with the kids, and I think I’m all about living life and learning those lessons, so I want to teach that to them.”

In his first year at Redwood, Matsumoto says he wants, “to learn more about the culture, how it’s changed, how the kids are, and what I want to bring back is, I love people interacting with each other. I feel like it’s kind of been lost, and I want you guys to enjoy each other’s company and seeing how great you guys really are.”

Carlos Delgadillo – Instructional Coach

Carlos Delgadillo grew up in Visalia and graduated from Mount Whitney High School.

He went to CSU Stanislaus and received his math degree. He taught for seven years up north in Atwater while he lived in Turlock. Delgadillo came back to the valley in 2019 and has been in Visalia Unified for the last five years. He has been an instructional coach for two years at Golden West and is entering his third year here at Redwood.

What drew Delgadillo to work here at Redwood is, “the culture here is amazing,” he says.
”I love the students, I love just being a part of Redwood. I think one of the most amazing things is just being; it feels like a big family here.”

Outside of work, Delgadillo says he loves to watch, “the Niners win. I’m going to football games. I have my wife and my two children, we like to travel, so we’ll go to different places.
 But one of our favorite places to go to Pismo Beach.”

“I just want to connect with as many people as possible,” says Delgadillo on his excitement to be here at Redwood. “So that way I don’t feel like I’m alone.”

Mica Sanchez – English Teacher

Mica Sanchez grew up in a small town named Riverdale with about 2,000 people.

She says Redwood high school definitely has more students. She played in the outfield and as a catcher for softball in high school and was the first female athlete in her school to ever receive a Division I athletic scholarship.

Sanchez still currently plays and coaches softball with Zumba on the side and a love for Star Wars. She says she has sort of taken a step back from it to focus on her eighth grade son.

Sanchez achieved her bachelor’s degree of health and recreational drama at the University of Toledo, Ohio.

She says she wanted to become a health teacher/public speaker but it required more tests than she had anticipated so she changed her major to English and came back to California to earn her teaching credentials.

“Originally, my inspiration to be a teacher, his name was Mr. Mac Shaw.” Says Sanchez. “He was a traveling ‘health teacher’ because we didn’t have health at the high school I went to. So that kind of inspired me to do the same. So I created my major based on what I thought his job was.”

With excitement, Sanchez wants to work with teachers, “during professional development.
I love for them to visit my classroom, watch what I’m doing, and get ideas. So I’m really open to working with my Redwood people again. When it comes to the students, I do Saga. [It’s] Sexualities and Gender Alliance. I really want to create that safe space for those in the LGBTQ plus and their allies to hang out and learn more about us.”

Sanchez says she came back to Redwood because, “besides my student teaching, Redwood was my first teaching job. And I’ve kind of been here.
I love the culture, the teachers are great, the admin is awesome and
I wouldn’t want to work for anybody else. The reason I came back to Redwood was because I definitely missed working with kids.”

Paige Ainley – History and Law

Paige Ainley grew up here and attended Visalia schools.

She spent the last nine years teaching and helped Ridgeview middle school open up. She received her bachelor’s degree in social science at Fresno Pacific University. Later, Ainley went to Grand Canyon University and earned her masters degree in curriculum and instruction.

“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher but trying to figure out what content I wanted to teach like social science and history was the content that was related to real world problems the most and so I felt like it would connect with students the most to be able to have real world conversations with them”

Outside of work, Ainley says she loves to travel.

She says she has, “been to a lot of countries around the world and I like to take pictures of places that I teach about and try to incorporate those pictures and stories in places that I’ve been into lessons to make a bit more real to my kids.”

“Redwood is a really big school and I have missed that high school culture of going to sports games, club events and all that stuff,” says Ainley about her first year here at Redwood. “I’m just excited to be a ranger and be a part of the tradition that’s already been set here but also to contribute to the future of this school.”

Roxana Drummond- Ed specialist

Born and raised in the Peninsula in San Mateo County, Roxana Drumonnd moved here about two years ago.

Drummond and her husband moved out here because they were able to purchase their first home for the first time. She says, “We just love it. We love our home. We love where we’re at and we love the schools in the area. So, I think that’s what drew us to the area.”

Drummond is Mexican and comes from a family immigrants. She says, “So actually I was the first one to go to college for the first time and also pursue a higher education.”

“I went to school at San Francisco State and that’s where I got my bachelor’s and then my master’s degree there in mild to moderate disabilities and my teaching credential with the same. It got me interested because I myself as a kid struggled with a learning challenge,” Drummond said.

“I feel that it’s a way for me to pay it forward for people who might need that kind of support for other people that are struggling just like me. And I feel like the teachers that really influenced me were pretty much my special ed teachers and my speech therapists.”

She says, “They really worked hard with me and I was able to accomplish so many goals that I had with myself. But I also felt like they were the parents that I never felt like I had because my family couldn’t teach me like certain things my teachers could and so I was grateful for that.”

“What excites me most about working at Redwood is the fact that I get to work at a high school again. When I was back in the Bay Area, I worked at a high school for five or six years. One year at a different school and then for five years at a different school,” she said.

“I really miss being able to support kids in their transition to adulthood outside of high school. That really excites me, but also helping them sign up for jobs, helping them sign up for scholarships, that kind of thing. I miss doing all that.

Drummond says, “I think that’s what excites me the most is making sure that kids are prepared for life in general after high school because this is not where it ends. You know, this is just where it starts.”

“I really like the fact that the staff and everyone is just so welcoming and I feel like there’s a sense of camaraderie and there’s that culture of inclusiveness that I feel, you know, makes every staff member feel like they belong. I feel like I do belong here and everyone’s done a great job at doing that,” Drummond said.

Outside of work she says she likes to, “Go hiking. I do love to exercise. That’s my mental health support. I also enjoy reading. I like to read during the summers if I could when I get a chance. I have a toddler, a three and a half year-old, so she takes up a lot of my time.”

Drummond says that her goal this school year is to, “Practice more mindfulness. I feel like the last couple of years I feel like I didn’t really have a whole lot of balance in my life just because work was very demanding. But this year, I definitely want to work on not just balance and mindfulness, but also more gratitude, appreciation for the things that I have.”

By practicing more mindfulness especially as she is coming into teaching a new course this semester, shes says, “It’s definitely a good way to clear out the noise and the fear. But I’m also working with other staff members and I just want to make sure that I have a good sense of balance in my mind.”

Emma Johansson – French Teacher

Emma Johansson was born in the Netherlands.

Contrary to popular belief, Johansson says, “lots of people think I was born in France because I speak French.” Her father is from Sweden, while her mother is from California. They worked and lived in many places all over Europe, but settled in France, in the Alps, and north of the country to grow their flower business. In 2005, at the age of 15, Johansson’s parents sold their business and moved to Northern California to Mt. Shasta.

“After high school, I went to College of the Siskiyous (also COS) and then transferred to Southern Oregon University just across the California/Oregon border in Ashland,” says Johansson about her educational background.

Initially, she majored in graphic design and minored in French, but ultimately majored in French due to a missing class.

Before she graduated, she applied to teach English at an elementary school in France. She came back to California, worked in retail, and moved to Portland, Oregon to teach French at the Alliance Française, and gave private French lessons.

She says, “In late 2021, a French teacher position opened up at my old high school, Mt Shasta High School. I moved back and taught there for two and a half years (while getting my credential) before the program was cut. Then, in late September 2024, I saw the posting on Ed Join for the French teaching position at Redwood HS and decided to take it!”

Johansson says she, “honestly just fell into it” when asked about her inspiration to teach French and work at Redwood.

She says “I thought I would go into graphic design to design packaging but that never happened: I kept getting French jobs after French jobs so I figured in 2022 that I should get my credential to make it official. But I really have come to enjoy it: I really like connecting with my students and seeing their progression throughout the semester; French is definitely not an easy language, especially compared to Spanish.”

“I initially had no plans to move this far south but I did know one person at Visalia: Shannon Maskal who is the French teacher at El Diamante! We were in the same credential program. It’s very difficult finding French teaching positions in the majority of the state, so you go where you have to,” Johansson said.

Johansson enjoys baking and cooking. She says she has, “quite a few French cookbooks that [she uses]. I’ve never made pastries, but I make crêpes frequently. I also like going to art museums; I’d like to go to the art museum in Fresno at some point.”

During Johansson’s first full year here at Redwood, she says since she arrived, and, “started so quickly late in the year, at the end of October, it was too crazy of a time to really enjoy [herself]. She says that her goal this year is to “Learn more about the school’s culture and maybe go to a few soccer games. I am really impressed at the amount of school spirit that exists here!”

Adam Thompson- Ed Specialist

Adam Thompson, is from Southern California, raised in an Air Force family. Thompson lived in Germany with his family before coming back to California.

He says, “I myself went into the army at seventeen, I worked at AT&T for 23 years before going into teaching so I’ve don’t lots of different things, customer service, HVAC, and now teaching. I’m in the second year of my intern program so after this year I’ll have my credential.”

He got his bachelor’s degree in child development to help get into management and then he says he decided to go into special education because he, “thought it would be good to help students that need it.”

Thompson’s educational journey started when he, “got an associate degree in communications when [he] was at AT&T.”

What brought Thompson to Redwood, “was an opportunity to be at a single site. Last year I was flipping between two different schools so this was an opportunity to be at one site at a time.”

Outside of school, Thompson says he, “really loves music. I personally have a lot of kids. I really connect well with kids. I really like movies. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of hobbies thinking about it.”

“I think from the perspective of some teachers they’ve only ever been teachers and I have some life experience outside of teaching I can lend to students,” says Thompson about what he wants to bring to Redwood.

“Like hey, there is a real world outside of these walls and sometimes they don’t care what happens here. I think I can be able to say hey, there’s decisions that you are making now that will affect your whole life and if you make bad decisions you are not able to recover from, it could affect your ability to earn where you live, what kind of jobs you have. I’m trying to be a positive influence there.”

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