After teaching for the past two years at the school, leadership teacher and activities director Kristen Cunningham recently announced she plans to change school districts for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. 

Cunningham will move with her family to Placer County at the end of the school year, taking on the position of assistant principal at Buljan Middle School in Roseville. She said she is excited to return to a middle school campus, as most of her educational career has been with middle schoolers. Prior to her hiring at Saratoga High, Cunningham worked at Student Support Services at Valley Christian High School. 

Joining the staff amid a pandemic was a unique experience that brought her closer to her colleagues and students, Cunningham said. She had taken on activities director when the position opened after Matthew Torrens’s transition from Leadership teacher to assistant principal. 

“Connecting with my Leadership class, and especially coming out of a pandemic, is one of my favorite memories,” she said. “That was when we first all got together and decided how we can bring students back.” 

She said her favorite project she saw through was her very first event at the school, the Falcon Food Truck Fest in 2021. She remembered how special it was to see the Homecoming reveal come together during the event.

While her time at the school was cut short, she said she will continue to keep in touch with her friends and “continue [these friendships] beyond when I’m here.”

Cunningham said she will miss all of the students she has met along her teaching journey at the school. 

“It was never my plan to move,” she said. “But I am in this position to be moving on at this point, away from Saratoga High. I have absolutely loved serving here. And I feel that this more than anything I’ve done in my 22 years of education, that this is like my sweet spot.”