Just as the class of 2016 is taking final AP exams and unfolding purple graduation gowns, so too are four faculty members preparing to say goodbye to Piedmont. Between them, they have contributed over 35 years of teaching, administrative work and counseling to PHS and MHS.

Math teacher Bill Marthinsen, director of the Wellness Center Ting Hsu Engelman, English teacher Shimyun Cotter and computer science teacher Rajendra Shrivastava will each be leaving their positions in Piedmont at the end of this year. Both Marthinsen and Hsu Engelman are retiring from teaching, although Hsu Engelman said she may return, while Cotter and Shrivastava are pursuing educational careers elsewhere.

“They’re all just quality individuals and I wish the best for them,” principal Brent Daniels said.

Daniels and other PUSD administrators are currently searching for new hires to fill in the gaps left by the four departing. When searching for new educators, a driving factor is the number of courses that need to be covered, Daniels said.

“We will look at the number of course requests students make for a particular class and then we allocate sections,” Daniels said. “Right now, most of our classes are at 28 [students] or lower..”

Rounding off the tail end of a twenty-year career at PHS, Marthinsen has spent the most time at PHS out of the four. He has taught everything from Algebra 1A, which no longer exists, to Geometry, to Math Analysis. He likened his individual teaching style to jazz. There is the structure of the song itself — the curriculum — but he makes improvisations in the midst of it.

“If I’m teaching, say, two Math Analysis classes, they end up covering the same material but I don’t do it the same way   because it’s a different bunch of students in each of the classes,” Marthinsen said.

Marthinsen made the decision to retire last summer.

“That way going into this year I could savor every day,” he said.

During his last year at PHS, students passing by Marthinsen in the halls may notice the colorful Hawaiian shirts he dons each day.

“The tradition for Hawaiian shirts in the math department was ‘Aloha Fridays,’” Marthinsen said. “This was my ‘Aloha Year.’”

Although not wearing a Hawaiian shirt everyday, Hsu Engelman is also stepping aside from her career in Piedmont. She began in PUSD as a high school counselor in 2004.

“I’ve been really honored to work with all the students I’ve encountered,” Hsu Engelman said.

After seven years as a counselor, she took on a dual role in 2011 as both MHS principal and Wellness Center director. She left the MHS position at the end of the 2014-2015 school year but remained with the Wellness Center.

“I don’t think I could have asked for anything more than to have been the principal at Millennium High School,” she said. “We went through a lot of struggles and tears, but also success. It was awesome. The teachers there were extremely committed and we worked together as a cohesive group to support all the students at Millennium to prepare the students for their paths.”

Last year, she decided to start working part time at the Wellness Center to spend more time with her four-year-old.

“My son was growing up so fast. I thought if I went part-time, I could spend three days out of the week with him,” Hsu Engelman said.

Spending more time with him prompted her to start thinking about putting her career in Piedmont on hold, she said.

“I’ll probably go back to education when he’s a little older,” Hsu Engelman said.

As for Shrivastava, he lives in Fairfield and commutes to Piedmont via public transportation, which takes over five hours round trip. For this reason, he resigned and is currently searching for a teaching opportunity closer to home, he said.

Despite being financially capable of retirement, he wants to keep teaching, he said.

“[Teaching] is almost like a social engagement rather than staying at home sitting with the dog,” Shrivastava said. “That aspect is far more valuable to me than the paycheck.”

Shrivastava took a computer science teaching position at PHS in the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. Over the past two years, he has taught AP Computer Science, Web Development, Mobile Applications Development and Exploring Computer Science, working closely with computer science teacher Nathan Mattix.

“[Mattix] has been almost twenty years in high school; I’ve been almost twenty years in college and industry,” Shrivastava said. “So by us talking and exchanging, I learned a lot from him about how to be a good computer science teacher.”

In the classroom, Shrivastava has a very unique teaching style, said AP Computer Science student junior Mia Arthur, who refers to him as “Dr. Raj.”

“You can talk to him about a lot of stuff and he’s easy to talk to, but sometimes if you have a question he’ll just say, ‘You can figure it out yourself,’” Arthur said.

Cotter began teaching at Piedmont last year and has taught sophomores and juniors at PHS and MHS.

“I really wanted to be a part of this community because I knew that it’s centered on academic excellence and I wanted to be working with students who were motivated,” Cotter said.

Cotter was told that she would not be returning next year in April and has already arranged a teaching position for next fall at Acalanes High School in Lafayette.

“It’s a similar district where students are engaged in learning and so I feel like the transition will be smooth,” Cotter said. “I’m sad, very, very sad to leave — I do really love Piedmont and all the kids here — but I need to do what I have to do.”

Cotter said she wants to express her graditude for her experience at Piedmont.

“Everyday I’m impressed by my kids and that’s what I’m gonna leave here with,” she said.

Wishing each of them the best, Daniels said thank you to Marthinsen for all the lives he has touched through teaching, to Cotter for  building relationships between students and English, to Shrivastava for helping expand Piedmont’s computer science department and to Hsu Engelman for her ability to work with both MHS and the Wellness Center.