Friday, March 20, 2009 By Ovsanna Khachikian LEAVING CLARK: Web design teacher Tom Martin works with student on a website project. - Ovsanna Khachikian Advertising Tom Martin accepts new job offer (January 27, 2006) -- Only weeks after senior English teacher Melanie Martin returned from maternity leave, her husband, web design teacher Tom Martin announced that he will not be returning second semester. He has accepted a new job offer at Val Surf, a company he has been working at for two years as a web-developer. The sudden announcement came as a shock to many of the students enrolled in Martin’s three web design classes and the administrative staff. Junior Carlos Armendariz, one of the students who planned to take the advanced web design class which was going to be added to the school’s curriculum next semester, was disappointed to hear the news of Martin’s departure. “Though he is abandoning us in a way, I, too, would take the job offer if I was in his position,” Armendariz said. Martin said that what made his teaching experience rewarding was seeing students who weren’t interested in web design become passionate about it. “My feelings changed from one extreme to another,” Armendariz said, crediting Martin for sparking his new found interest in web design. Assistant principal Joan Shoff said, “He was a wonderful addition to Clark.” During his brief two-semester stay at the school, he said that he met students with whom he would maybe like to work with professionally. Since web design is a ROP course, students can use the skills they learn in class to find a job in the field, but that goes unnoticed. Shoff said, “Often, kids don’t understand the value of the ROP classes that offer skills, which can be applicable at work.” According to Shoff, a web design class will be unavailable to students until a qualified teacher is found. Several classes will be added to accommodate the students who were scheduled to take the web design class. A period of Small Business and Computer Applications will be added, and teacher Matt Stroup will teach a new Introduction to Cinematography class. “I regret going, but it was a decision I had to make,” Martin said. Though he says it was a tough decision, Martin said he believes what he did was best for him and his family. Martin says his new position, as the e-commerce manager at a well-known company, is his “dream job.”

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