Last Monday, the math department officially hired two replacement teachers for Viola Smith, Kristin Castillo, and Candace Jiang’s math classes.

The changes occurred due to Smith’s decision to take on the position of Vice Principal at New Valley High School and math and AVID teacher Hugo Cortes’s recent suspension following his arrest for having unlawful sex with a minor.

Principal Gregory Shelby and math department chair, Castillo, interviewed applicants for the math department and hired Kevin Ball and Sarah Wellberg for the new positions. Both teachers started last Monday and have taken over classes ranging from Algebra 1 to Trigonometry.

Along with new teachers, other changes in the math department have been made as well; Castillo now teaches only two of her original four Trigonometry classes, as a result of having taken on two of Cortes’s AVID classes, and Jiang has taken on two of Cortes’s AP Statistics classes, in addition to her original AP Statistics class.

Jiang reassures her students that she is working hard and that former teach Christine Drago, who taught AP Statistics while at SC, has offered her time to make the make the transition as smooth as possible.

Overall, “the problems in the math department are, for the most part, resolved,” said Castillo.