This year, the sophomore required STEM Ecology class has been removed, and instead has been combined with STEM Biology due to vacancies in staffing in the Engineering pathway.
Science teachers Shealyn Mathews, Adriana Lopez, and Neesha Patel all left San Marin after the 2023-2024 school year for teaching positions at other schools.
This left four STEM class sections without a teacher for the current school year.
“We spent the summer trying to find a new teacher. We interviewed, we networked… there was nobody interested,”
Melissa Havel
STEM Biology teacher
“We spent the summer trying to find a teacher. We interviewed, we networked… there was nobody interested; hardly anybody applied,” AP Environmental Science and STEM Biology teacher Melissa Havel said.
Katsulis is replacing Lopez and Patel’s positions, while Havel is taking over Mathews’ Classes.
According to the Certificated Salary Schedule for the 2024-2025 school year, a teacher who has been working a minimum of 15 years makes $102,054 at San Marin, while another teacher with the same qualifications makes $135,630 at San Rafael City High School District, and $143,604 at Tamalpais Union High School District.
“South Marin is funded through property taxes, Novato is funded through the state. [Other districts] have more money, and they are able to fund it more,” Havel said.
“We had to make the really hard decision to just cancel the course,”
Melissa Havel
STEM Biology teacher
The ecology curriculum, created by Havel in 2020, was originally part of the course requirements for STEM Engineering students in their sophomore year.
Three teachers were needed to meet the requirement to have an Ecology class, but only two new teachers were hired.
“We had to make the really hard decision to just cancel the course because of the lac of a teacher,” Havel said.
The STEM Engineering pathway will be more biology-focused this year, unlike previous years where the students got a mix of both courses. Sophomores in the STEM program will be working on a year-long ecology research project to be presented at the end of the year instead of an ecology course.
This new research-based project will result in students like sophomore Aime Maldonado spending less time learning about ecology than STEM students in previous years.
“At first I was relieved because I had a free period, but I was bummed when I found out that I only had to do a project for it. I wanted to learn more about ecology and the plants, but the project is mostly about researching,” Maldonado said.
Ecology standards will still be met, but not taken in depth as a result of the teacher shortage.
