The job of an activities director isn’t an easy one. It includes communicating with teachers, meeting with and managing student government, organizing club events and student activities, taking care of information that needs to be given to the school board and helping the Leadership class do its variety of tasks.
The job is currently held by Spanish teacher Rebecca Marshburn, but when the 2015-16 school year comes to an end, she will return with her family to San Antonio, Texas, her home before moving to California mainly because, according to Marshburn, they don’t have a lot of family in California and decided that after her father-in-law’s passing in December, it was important to be around family.
Student leaders say losing Marshburn will be a huge loss.
“Words cannot describe how amazing she is,” said senior clubs commissioner Meera Rachamallu. “She is incredibly hardworking and she always does her best to stand up for the students so they can get what they want.”
Rachamallu also said that Marshburn is extremely humble in her work.
“She always the one in the background organizing everything,” Rachamallu said. “I cannot imagine how anyone can match her attitude and effort.”
In her three years here, Marshburn has made quite the impact. Before Marshburn began the job, assistant principal Kerry Mohnike not only managed student activities, but also was responsible for a wide range of administrative duties such as supervising the special education program.
“She had so much on her plate,” Marshburn said. “Managing student activities is extraordinarily time consuming, so I don’t know how she did everything.”
When Marshburn became activities director two years ago, she began making changes to the way clubs operated as well.
Such changes included ensuring that clubs turned in their club minutes, maintained at least 12 members per meeting and actively participated in activities like Club Day.
“I’d say that was my biggest contribution as activities director,” Marshburn said. “Although I think that a lot of students were not happy that we were checking in with their clubs, I thought it was important to place rules so that what [club officers] were putting on their college applications is accurate.”
But Marshburn said that this is also a result of her personality as activities director.
“I have a vision and I like things to work in a certain way, and I like to follow rules,” Marshburn said.
But next year, Marshburn’s range of jobs will be transferred to a different activities director.
“Before I leave, I’m trying to make sure ASB is completely taken care of,” Marshburn said. “I want to make sure that all the programs the ASB officers and I have been working on are active and everything is ready for the next school year.”
One objective Marshburn is working on for ASB before she leaves is the introduction of a new program called the “5 star system,” which allows ASB and administrators to scan student IDs in order to log student information. It essentially acts as a tracking system that will be given to ASB officers, administrators and anyone that needs information on the percentages of students who participate in school activities.
Marshburn also expects the Leadership class to change significantly. Currently, Leadership meets during Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch, but next year it will have a class period embedded into the regular schedule. Although the period has yet to be determined, any student who wishes to apply for the class will be able to do so soon. The class will also expand next year to include class officers and commissioners.
Anyone who is running for ASB office or class office will be placed in the [Leadership] class automatically, so if a student is not willing to be in a specific leadership period, they shouldn’t run, according to Marshburn.
The first set of elections for ASB officers began on March 24, and the election day will be on April 14. Immediately after, applications for class officers will be available and elections will be held on April 28. On April 27, applications for the Leadership class will open.
Even if students don’t win elections, they can still apply to be in the Leadership class and will be placed in a commission.
“For instance, if you want to be in Homecoming Commission, you would apply for the Leadership class and you’d put [Homecoming Commission] on your application,” Marshburn said. “So, you’d still be going through the application and interview process.”
Students who do not want to specifically be part of commission will also be able to apply and be a part of Leadership.
The teacher who takes over for Marshburn will be in charge of the Leadership class and also be the activities director.
But more than just her work and what she’s done to change the school, Marshburn says she’ll miss the students the most.
“As a teacher, I get to interact with the students all the time, but working with them directly on activities has been a completely different experience,” Marshburn said. “It has been very rewarding to see how much fun they have and see the smiles on their faces. I’m going to miss them a lot.”
