More staffing changes at Taylor

I am pleased to announce two important staffing additions here at Taylor.

The first is the addition of Lisa Padilla-Barnes to our Social Communications Program where she will be teaching our 7th and 8th grade autism students. Mrs. Barnes worked most recently as an inclusion teacher at Chelwood ES and Apache ES. She is a Corrales resident and an Albuquerque native. We are glad to have her on board.

The second big change is the transfer of Christy Green from the Language Arts Department to be our new Instructional Coach. Christy is the current Language Arts Department chair as well as chair of our Instructional Council. She replaces Lindsay Estes who has moved to a consultant position with district office. Joellen Beller-Hudgins has graciously agreed to assume responsibility for Christy’s classes for next year. This means Joellen will teach the accelerated language arts classes Christy was to have taught. We will now begin recruiting for a lang-lit intervention teacher to teach the Joellen’s previously scheduled reading intervention classes.

I would also like announce that Helen Maloney has decided to accept an instructional coach position helping math teachers across the district. This is a great honor for Helen and while we are going to miss her positive energy and can-do spirit, we also recognize that she has tremendous instructional skills that will benefit a great number of APS students. She has assured me that she will continue to visit frequently and perhaps even help with volleyball. We all hope so.

These changes now create two new vacancies that Pam and I will be interviewing for: (1) 6th-7th grade lang-lit intervention teacher, and (2) 7th grade math teacher. If you know of any outstanding teachers who want to be a part of a great team, encourage them to call me or email me. We want to hire these teachers as soon as possible.

Congratulations to Lisa, Christy, and Helen on their new ventures. Also kudos to the Taylor teachers who attended today’s Data Director training at Montgomery.