Kiwanis welcomes Shafter's new teachers

The Shafter Kiwanis Club held their annual New Teachers Luncheon recently, welcoming the newest additions to the Shafter schools' staffs with a lunch held at the Shafter Veterans Hall.

Members of the Kiwanis, as well as members of the community were on hand to give the new teachers a big thank you for their dedication to our children.

Golden Oak had just one new addition for this year, with James Zontek starting with the school as a third grade teacher.

For the Sequoia Elementary School Bears, there were four teachers who were welcomed to the Bear family.They were Carmen Bidwell, Kevin Varga, Maria Uribe and Alexis Maldonado.

For GROW Academy, they welcomed a new Administrator this year, as Lacie Harris is their new Principal at the Academy. Harris was the Assistant Principal last year, with years of experience in education.

For Shafter High School, Principal Russell Shipley welcomed a few additions, with Jon Rose as Assistant Principal, Melissa Bennett, Michelle Blalock, and Katie Thompson.

At Redwood Elementary, Gabriella Mercado, Neyda Davalos and Juliana Aguilar were welcomed to the team. They were very excited to get started at Redwood and were looking forward to making a difference at the school.

Richland Junior High had several new members of their team to introduce, with a total of seven new additions. Jennifer Powers, Leticia Garcia Perez, Maria Lopez, Celeste Rodriguez, Amy Cooper, Aimee Muck and Mylum Nicholson were added to the Trojan family this past year.

"We are excited to have these wonderful additions to the team," said Principal Monica Garza.