Two staff members taking maternity leave this semester

Guidance counselor Alinna Satake and her husband Hideyo welcomed a second child to their family. The baby girl was born on Feb. 10.

Satake will not be returning for the remainder of the 2009-2010 school year, but has an experienced replacement filling in for her while she is gone, Sandi Augustine, who previously served as a counselor at SHS before retiring in 2007.

“She’s been really great about covering for me and making sure everyone is well taken care of. It helps that she already knows the school and everything,” said Satake.

Satake also has a 22-month-old son named Sam and says “he has no idea what’s going on.”

Biology and AP Environmental Science teacher and swim coach Kristen Thomson is also expecting a baby girl.

“The due date is April 24,” said Thomson. “Last time, I was working up to the day I had my baby, so as long as I’m healthy, I’m planning on staying here until the 23rd.”

Thomson does not know who her substitute will be, but she would like to be able to work well with the person. So far, she has 5 boxes filled with material for the substitute, and that’s only for her biology classes.

“It’s a lot harder to prepare for this, especially the last month of school. I might not come back so I have to make sure the lesson plans are all made up,” said Thomson. “I’m trying to make it as smooth as a transition as possible for my students.”

Like Satake, once Thomson leaves, she will not be returning for the remainder of the school year.

“I’m still debating whether to take off the first month of next year, but it hasn’t been decided yet,” said Thomson.

Besides preparing material for her replacement, she also needs to come up with a name for her baby.

“We’ve hardly discussed [the baby’s name],” said Thomson. “When you have your first kid, that’s all you talk about. But he is talking all the time and sometime he’s a terror, so now it’s hard to find time to talk to my spouse about things like that.”