Every year Diamond Bar High School adds a few new teachers to the Brahma family. This year Sally Jarvis, Albert Lim, Taylor Canatsey, Melinda Corral, Ray Crummitt, and Whitney Prenger have been added to the roster.

In addition, the sports department added their new football head coach, Marcus Hughes, and new athletic director, Kevin Ferguson.

Leonard Romero, a long term substitute, is filling in as a ROP Environmental Science teacher for the beginning of the year. Before starting at DBHS, Romero worked as a criminalist forensic scientist with a focus on ballistics for 24 years. He also used to train detectives and police personnel in crime scene investigation and thoroughly enjoyed teaching others.

His interest in teaching first sparked when he substituted for a Forensics Science class at Edgewood High School. They soon hired him to be a full time teacher, and he taught both Forensic Science and Administration of Justice.

However, after going back to forensic science for a while, Romero missed the interaction with students. He instills a focus on class participation because he believes that students can feed off of this exchange of ideas.

Another addition to the Brahma family is Florida native, Sally Jarvis. Jarvis moved to southern California two months ago from Orlando. She has worked in education for five years now and has taught special education, debate, and English honors. She fosters the idea of being an actively involved teacher, so she has coached boys cross country as well as boys track and field.

“When I was younger, I wanted to be a teacher, and then it changed and I wanted to be a doctor. [However,] I realized that’s not for me since I don’t do very well with science. I was like well, my degree is in English, and I like teaching, so why not teach at a high school. It worked, and it was like reliving my senior year all over again,” Jarvis stated.

At DBHS, Jarvis teaches personal management, as well as career and college explorations. During her senior year in high school, she worked with the special education program as a teacher’s assistant. Ever since then, she has felt a connection to special education.

“It made me grow as a person because I realized I [could] actually connect with a student. When I teach them something then to see them actually understand [the material], it’s just made me believe more in myself that I can be a great teacher,” she said.

Jarvis looks forward to working at DBHS not only because she is a fan of purple but also because she has heard that Brahmas are outgoing, involved individuals. Because she values school involvement, she really admires the fact that our students care about the school.

Once a Brahma, always a Brahma applies very well to class of 1996 alumni, Albert Lim. A former football player, Lim was part our 1995 CIF Championship team. Lim has coached football at DBHS ever since 2009 but just started teaching this year. He currently teaches academic support and health science.

“One of the best and famous coaches of all time is John Wooden, and he was also a teacher as well. I feel like a lot of [teaching] overlaps [with coaching] in terms of skills because to be a great coach, you have to teach the kids. To be a great teacher, you have to coach the students,” Lim stated.

Taylor Canatsey also joined the Brahma staff to teach Health Careers at DBHS. Health Careers focuses on widening the students’ grasp of the evolving health field and the careers available in the health industry.

Melinda Corral and Ray Crummitt are both involved in Special Education. Corral teaches Special Education English, and Crummitt teaches a class with students who have autism and related disorders.

Whitney Prenger started at DBHS as a pep advisor and this year has added on to teach English.