Mary Ziegler has been a Statistics and Math 2 teacher at Santa Barbara High School and will now be replacing our previous interim Dean of Students, Mr. Hodges, who retired after winter break. She has been teaching at Santa Barbara High School for five years, and has been in education for 30 years. Ten of those years she worked as an administrator. I interviewed Ms. Ziegler to find out more about the new change. She shared that she wanted to be a dean because she saw a need, since the school did not have a Dean following Hodges retirement. Right now it will be a temporary assignment, and then after this semester, she will evaluate if she wants to make it permanent. 

A dean is part of the whole administrative team at Santa Barbara High School, which means Ms. Ziegler will be working closely with campus supervisors, Pedro Menchaca, and the family engagement office. This may look like, “working with students that might get in trouble for various reasons and talking with them and their families,” according to Ms. Ziegler. She added, “I’m just looking forward to the transition. I think I can bring a unique perspective to the administration team having been in the classroom for the last five years, so I think that’s going to be helpful for the whole school and the admin team.”

I talked to some of Ms. Ziegler’s students from her third period class, and it was clear they had a lot of respect for her. Willam Stuart said, “She’s a really good teacher and she cares a lot about her students.” Another student, Alan Sanchez, commented, “Ms. Ziegler is really on top of the kids when it comes to learning, she is fast paced, and she always keeps the class focused.”

Ms. Ziegler’s final remark was, “I’m looking forward to the difference and what that will bring for students and families.” Ms. Ziegler will be a great voice for our school and we are all excited to have her as our new Dean of Students for this upcoming semester.