Featuring Q&A with Hercules High's new faculty members:
Principal: Paul Mansingh
Q: What was your position at Hercules prior to principal?
A: “I was the assistant principal, split duties with high school and middle school: I did middle school discipline, and I shared my time with the high school and I did a lot of the assessment on the high school side.”
Q: How is the switch from middle school to high school responsibilities?
A: “It’s pretty major. [...] I miss the little kids, the 11- and 12-year-olds, the energy, and the playfulness, and the silliness of their problems and concerns that they have [...]. So I miss that little part of that kid feel in the high school. [The] shift [from middle to high school] has been from just the taking care of little behavioral things that 11- and 12-year-olds have to focusing on the bigger goal of ‘will you graduate from high school?’.”
Q: What are your goals as principal?
A: “My main goal as principal is to assure that a majority of kids that are enrolled in this school get their education and have the opportunity to graduate, and also have the opportunity to move their career forward to being accepted into college, university, or vocational trade or something. Preparing them for life.”
Assistant Principal: Dingane Newson
Q: Where did you work before Hercules? What was your position there?
A: “Before Hercules, I was at Juan Crespi middle school, and I worked in a variety of capacities—first as a teacher, English, World History; and I worked as a 504 site chair, worked as an English department chair, also was on our instructional leadership team. [...] I also worked as an ELD coach at Richmond High School two years back, so I’ve worked with teachers here before.”
Q: How long have you been a school administrator?
A: “I’ve been a school administrator for a year.”
Q: What are your goals as assistant principal?
A: “My goals here is to first make sure that students are safe emotionally and physically, [and] that students reach their full academic potential. I’m a big proponent of this idea called ‘WIT,’ which stands for ‘Writing,’ ‘Inquiry’—meaning research—and ‘Teamwork.’ Now, with our transition into the Common Core, it’s going to be important that students are writing across the curriculum. [...] So those are the goals that I’m looking to address. And also to serve and support students and their families, not just inside the classroom, but outside.”
Teacher: Joseph Moreno
Q: How long have you been teaching? A: “Here in West Contra Costa, this is my first year. [I’ve also worked in] Irvine Unified School District.” Q: Did you do anything prior to teaching?
A: “I’m a retired marine.”
Q: What is the other school you work at? What subjects do you teach here and there? A: “Mira Vista Middle School. I’m the band director there. I direct 7th and 8th graders [...]. So I teach computer apps here, [...] and then I teach Econ in the mornings first and third period. And next semester I’m teaching American Government.”
Q: What do you like about Hercules High? A: “The students here are fantastic; I really love the school. But my favorite part is—I get here early, [...] and every morning when I drive in, there’s this mother turkey that’s crossing the road down here on Refugio, and she has her three little baby turkeys that are following her, so I have to stop the car and get out and shoo them off the road because other people will drive really fast through there and they’re going to kill the turkeys. But I also love that you guys have turkeys that come down these hills. I’ll be having class and sometimes you’ll hear ‘gobble gobble gobble,’ and you never hear that in other schools, so I think that’s cool.”
Teacher: Moran Rubin
Q: How long have you been teaching? Did you do anything prior to teaching?
A: “This is my second year [teaching]. I also substituted, I worked in after-school [programs], and Cyber High.”
Q: What subject(s) do you teach? A: “History -- World History this year.”
Q: Where did you teach before Hercules? A: “I taught in Milpitas Unified School District.”
Q: What do you like about Hercules?
A: “The students really impress me. They’re polite -- for the most part -- and they want to learn, and they have good study skills[...]. And they always get me in a better mood. Like if I come in a bad mood -- it surprises me, that they’re very positive and make me feel better.”
Teacher: Norman Abshear
Q: How long have you been teaching? Did you do anything prior to teaching?
A: “This is my first teaching job. I was in the IT field in computer operating. I was a victim of the ‘dot-com boom,’ which is a phenomenon where people put a lot of money into ‘great ideas.’ The dot-com boom basically tried selling vaporware, which is like hardware or software that never materialized. Everybody lost money and the entire thing laid off a lot of people, including me.”
Q: What subject(s) do you teach?
A: “Math, specifically Algebra 1 and Geometry.”
Q: What do you like about Hercules?
A: “The environment. I like the teaching staff and most students. It’s just a very nice environment. But I’m still getting to know Northern California.”
Teacher: Hazem Kira
Q: How long have you been teaching?
A: “I’ve been teaching for four years now.”
Q: Did you do anything prior to teaching? A: “I was in the political field for about ten years. [...] I used to intern with the state legislature, state senator John Vasquez [...] as well as a number of political advocacy groups, including the California Civil Rights Alliance. So just working on policy, [...] getting legislation passed and focusing on what they call ‘policy formation.’”
Q: What subject(s) do you teach?
A: “I teach currently [...] U.S. history and geography.”
Q: Where did you teach before Hercules?
A: “I taught in Benicia High School as well as Cal High in San Ramon.”
Q: What do you like about Hercules?
A: “I love the students, and the administration has been very accommodating as well.”
Site Supervisor: Ambika “Raji” Maharaj
Q: What was your job prior to your job at this school? A: “Sheriff department at Contra Costa.”
Q: What is your job description at this school? A: “Monitor the behavior of the students so they don’t get into fights.”
Q: Why did you decide to come to this school? A: “[I] quit my job at Contra Costa and transferred into this school district.”