Last Friday, October 18th 2024, it was announced that Katherine Shaw, AP Statistics and AP Pre-Calculus teacher, would be resigning from her position in order to take care of family.

“I am really sad that she’s not with our class anymore,” senior AP Statistics student Neha Kunka said. “I really like Ms. Shaw as a teacher, and I wish the best for her.”

This comes in the middle of the semester, and as of yet, there is no replacement teacher to fill her position. 

“Her notes and the way she taught were really helpful,” Kunka said. 

There will be an interim substitute, during which time the class will be primarily taught through old video notes, with assistance from AP Statistics teacher Matthew Bowen. According to math department head Ashley Alexander, it may take some time to find a permanent replacement teacher.

“I feel like we’ll definitely be negatively impacted by it,” senior AP Statistics student Regan Wager said. “Because even though we still get an extra teacher, it’s not going to be the same.”

Shaw, who had taught at the school for nearly ten years, didn’t plan on resigning anytime soon, but her hand was forced by conditions at home. There is discussion of bringing her back eventually, but in the meantime, this is an unexpected wrinkle in the math careers of many students. 

“I think our grades will probably go down,” Wager said. 

Both of the classes Shaw taught were AP courses, which puts the AP scores of her students in question.

“I think it’s gonna be a little bit difficult,” Kunka said. “It’s gonna be an adjustment to learn without her, but I think we could do it.”