On April 20, Director of Student Activities Melissa Perino announced to her Renaissance Leadership class that she would be stepping down after serving her position for eight years. As the leadership adviser, she has helped create three lip dubs, the Link Crew program, Town Hall meetings and more.
“When I found out Ms. Perino was stepping down, I was a bit distraught and sad because she’s such an amazing leadership teacher and I can’t imagine the program without her,” said senior Ren Chua. “She’s the heart and soul of our whole program and it’s really exciting when she comes up with new ideas and stands up for us and voices out what we want.”
Perino discusses the importance of release periods for Renaissance Leadership and what motivated her decision to step down.
“Continuing to run such a robust Leadership program given only one release period is increasingly unmanageable,” Perino said. “At this time, our site and district are unable to provide additional release periods in order to support the continuance of this work.”
Chua thinks it’s important to remember Perino’s achievements.
“She brought in a bunch of stuff for cultural representation and live announcements,” Chua said. “Ms. Perino [also] put a spotlight on Black History Month and teamed up with the Gender and Sexuality Awareness Club to talk more about allyship and the LBGTQ+ community. She consistently tries to enforce our motto of unity and respect for all cultures.”
Perino’s decision has left the Aragon administration obligated to find a new director of student activities. They posted an offer for the position on edjoin.org.
“I would love to find someone on campus who’s already aware and participating in campus culture,” said Principal Valerie Arbizu. “I’m having conversations with different people and seeing if I can convince somebody to come in and take the spot. [The position has] really big shoes to fill and I think it’s really important that our staff and the students know that a first year activities director will not be able to step right into everything that Ms. Perino has been doing. It will take some time for the new director to get acclimated and I wouldn’t be surprised if they put in their own flavor [to] the class.”
Arbizu hopes that the new activities director has some of Perino’s leadership qualities.
“Aragon CARES has Ms. Perino stamped all over it,” Arbizu said. “She’s worked with students on organizing the CARES Monday classroom conversations and that’s a huge shift in our school culture and climate. Last year, when we were in distance learning, she worked so hard to make sure students were connected to the school in many different ways.”
Junior Malia Malden thinks it’s important for Renaissance Leadership to be able to adjust to the new activities director to be able to move forward.
“It’s going to be hard as a lot of us have attachments to Ms. Perino,” Malden said. “It will be important to get to know the new director and for them to understand our roles. My hope is that they [know] all of the events that Renaissance Leadership has done in the past and wants to do in the future.”
Although Perino is stepping down from her position, the memories she made through leadership and her drive to help the school will stick with her.
“In 2014, I began as a teacher of one Leadership class with one release period and, since then, have expanded the program three-fold [along with] my responsibilities,” Perino said. “When I took on this role, I had and continue to have the drive to create a campus culture that champions our diversity and is inclusive, safe and fun. I love Aragon with all my heart, and will continue to serve it and our students, albeit in a different capacity.”
