Taft Union High School began the school year with several new staff members. TUHS received new additions to our switchboard and cafeteria along with a new psychologist and three first-year teachers, including an alumnus.

Matt Davis, 26, a Taft native and member of the TUHS class of 2009, has been hired as an English teacher. He has coached Taft High varsity baseball the past two years. The Dave Robertson-coached Wildcats won the South Sequoia League Davis’s senior year but lost in the Valley semi-finals. He was first team all-league his junior and senior years.

He pitched for Cuesta Junior College, where his team qualified for super regionals, and then Taft College. He earned a baseball scholarship to St. Edwards University in Austin. His senior year, they finished third in the college world series, losing to Minnesota State, 7-6. He was the losing pitcher, but he said it was “one of the best games I ever pitched. We lost 7-6. It went back and forth. The Minnesota State pitcher had gone 50 innings without giving up a run. We snapped his record in the fourth inning.”

Davis earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in digital media management, which he described as the digital arm for business. He earned his Masters of Education in secondary education at Grand Canyon University.

When Davis drove back to Taft from Austin, Les Clark Jr., offered him a job as the rec coordinator at the West Side Recreation and Park District. He also started subbing at Taft High and coaching the baseball team. Last spring, he did his student teaching here, which led to the full-time English job.

Besides coaching baseball, he also is the adviser for the high school Key Club, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Taft, and a member of the board of directors for the Rec District.

He is a fourth-generation Taft resident and a third-generation TUHS graduate. He attends the West Hills Church of the Nazarene.

“I love pretty much everything about this school,” he said. “I’m addicted to my baseball team. I run a full summer program. I do winter baseball. That is my passion. Everything I do revolves around baseball.

I just have enough time for work and baseball. We are (the baseball team is) very young but we are going to have some really good years starting this year.”

Christy Smith has been hired to teach a dozen moderately to severely handicapped students. The native of Canoga Park graduated from Bakersfield’s West High where she played in the honor orchestra.

She earned her bachelors degree in liberal arts at Fresno Pacific University and is working on her teaching credential at Point Loma Nazarene University at its Bakersfield site.

She taught preschoolers English in Japan for two years, then worked as a special education teacher’s aide at a Department of Defense school in Aviano, Italy, for three years and in the Kern High School District for six years.

She and her husband of 23 years, Jeff, a Chevron plant operator, have three grown children: Joshua, 23, a nuclear engineer in the Navy; Justin, 20, who is stationed in Jordan with the American Air Force; and, Cialynn, 19, who attends Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo but is currently studying in Mexico to become an environmental engineer.

“I love it here,” the 43-year-old said. “This is my favorite place I’ve worked since leaving Italy.” In her free time, she travels the world.

Jennifer Phillips, 23, has her first full-time job teaching special education math, along with helping special education students in an algebra and algebra readiness class.

The native of Richmond, VA, graduated from the Academy for Academic Excellence, a charter high school in Apple Valley. She was a member of the Mock Trial team that finished second in San Bernardino County. She hopes to restart the Mock Trial team here. She also sang alto in the high school choir.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, with an emphasis on statistics from California State University, Bakersfield. She is taking night classes for her teaching credential and her masters through Point Loma University in Bakersfield. She worked for two years as a teaching assistant in the CSUB mathematics department.

She likes working at the high school. “People are very supportive. Almost everyone has told me if I need something to just ask.”

Bakersfield native Laquida Wafford, a South High graduate, is the new school psychologist, replacing retired Mark Shoffner.

At South, she participated in the criminal justice program and went on to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice with a minor in psychology from CSUB. At Fresno Pacific University, she earned her Master of Arts degree in school psychology with a pupil personnel services credential.

She has worked as a corrections officer at juvenile hall. The past 21/2 years, she was the school psychologist at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi.

The 35-year-old lives in Bakersfield with her nine-year-old son, Jaylen, who loves participating in Golden Empire Youth Football.

She likes Taft High. “Everyone has been so welcoming, offering to help.”

Veronica Montoya, another graduate of 2009, has returned to Taft High School to work in the amazing switchboard and is excited for her first year working on the campus. When asked for advice on how to survive high school, Montoya advised the students, “Not to dwell on the little things!”

Jessica Harris has been part of the TUHS staff in the previous years and has now moved over to the cafeteria. She wants to remind the students to, “Bring your ID cards and take each day as it goes.”