By Elena Coe-McNamara and Lauren Farberman
Theme Editors
After dissecting his way through Costa for 28 years, teacher Danny Sponaugle has decided to hang up his lab coat and retire from teaching at Costa.
Sponaugle began working at Costa in 1988, teaching classes including physical science, College Preparation Chemistry and school basketball.
“My favorite class I’ve taught anywhere has been CP Chemistry,” Sponaugle said. “I love the labs, and I think that the students really get enjoyment from doing the labs.”
During Sponaugle’s first four years teaching at Costa, he was a roaming teacher, which is a teacher that uses other teachers’ classrooms during their planning periods to teach classes.
“Being a roaming teacher helped me to meet all of the Science Department,” Sponaugle said. “It helped me to keep organized and understand the rules for different teachers.”
One of Sponaugle’s favorite things about Costa is the students’ desire and motivation to learn science. He finds this a unique characteristic of this district, because of the motivation that the kids acquire, since he has not seen this in other places, Sponaugle said.
“The majority of Costa students don’t realize what a nice school we are at,” Sponaugle said. “When I coached basketball [at Costa] and we would go to a new school, most of the kids would be shocked with the other campuses.”
Sponaugle is retiring in order to spend more time with his friends, family, and also to travel around the world. Sponaugle will miss his feeling of constantly being needed at Costa, he said.
“I plan on traveling to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Macchu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands,” Sponaugle said. “I hope to take a lot of small trips, so I continue being active throughout my retirement.”
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