Ms. Santillan has worked in Mount Airy City Schools since 2010 and in her time in the district, she has worked with multilingual students and dual language immersion (DLI) learners. In 2015, she became the first DLI to welcome 26 kindergarten students into the program. This first cohort of students are now in the seventh grade at Mount Airy Middle School. In 2018, she left the kindergarten classroom and began coordinating the program. Under her leadership, the program has blossomed and doubled in size. This fall, the ninth cohort of students will enter the halls of BH Tharrington Primary School.
While her first day with WCPSS begins April 17th, she will contract with MACS through the end of this school year to ensure the transition goes smoothly. She will continue to work with DLI teachers and curriculum.
Ms. Santillan has shared the following letter for the MACS family and community.
I started my career as an educator in MACS, and it is bittersweet to leave a school system that has given me amazing opportunities to grow professionally and personally. I feel I am extremely lucky to have worked for such a long period of time in the same community. A community that has been my home from the day I moved to this country.
I want to thank the MACS Board of Education for these wonderful 13 years and for giving me an opportunity of a lifetime to innovate and serve in different capacities in the school district; first as a teacher and then as an administrator. Leading the DLI program has been the highlight of my career, and it is a great accomplishment I will take with me. Thanks to MACS, I have worked alongside many talented colleagues and I have been mentored by great administrators. This has never just been a job to me. I believe that teaching is a calling to serve children and advocate for what is right. To help students grow and reach for the stars, to show kids that education can take them anywhere, that it is important work, and I hope I achieved that during my time here.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all my students, parents, colleagues, and to the community of Mount Airy for every single day, every single moment, and every blessing that has come my way. It has been an honor to be a part of this school community!
I am confident that MACS will continue to grow and provide excellence to all the students. While I am very excited about the new opportunities ahead, I will always treasure my time at MACS with tremendous fondness. I will do everything to ensure a smooth transition, and I look forward to continuing supporting MACS in a different capacity in the future.