Students and teachers at San Juan School started the year with a new interim principal.
Taffra Mayo, an educator with about 35 years of experience in education, left retirement to take the leadership role in San Juan Bautista until a permanent employee is selected.
“It’s just been great,” she said. “We’ve only had four days of school so far, but so far, so good.”
The former leader of the school, Kyle Griffith, left the district to become the principal of a school about a mile from his home, wrote Ruben Zepeda, the superintendent of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, in an email to the Free Lance.
Mayo, who lives in south Salinas, started work Aug. 17 just a day before teachers, she said. The students started classes Aug. 20.
The interim leader is bilingual in Spanish and worked in Monterey County and other places in Northern California, she said. Her most recent position before retirement was as principal of Highland Elementary School in Seaside. It was at that campus where she worked with Zepeda—the superintendent of her current school—who was the assistant superintendent of her district at that time.
Mayo takes charge of a school with 15 teachers, including four new instructors, she said. When she is not at school, she enjoys doing needlework, quilting, sewing, stitching and collecting antiques.
