Brenan back in the classroom

In May, following both local and statewide fund cuts to schools, Computer Science, Technology, & Engineering (CTE) teacher Kenneth Brenan discovered that after eight years of teaching at Costa, his contract was not going to be renewed for the 2024-

2025 school year.

News of his departure was met with harsh backlash from a number of his CTE students. In an effort to voice their frustration with the school board’s decision, a group of students

spoke at the school board meeting on June 18th and created a change.org petition, which gained over 600 signatures.

“When he told us about the news, we all thought it was [unacceptable],” junior Drew Whitney said. “Mr. Brenan does a lot for the tech and engineering department, and he’s done a lot for the students. He’s inspired us to become engineers and enter the STEM field.”

In June, the district decided to renew Brenan’s contract for the 2024-2025 school year. Many students who expressed the desire to have Brenan stay raised awareness, but Brenan believes advocacy from former principal Dr. Karina Gerger behind the scenes played a key role in his return.

“I’ve got no job security,” Brenan said. “We have to, at all times, be prepared for me not to have a job. Every other teacher in this school district, besides me, knows that once they get

2 years under their belt, they get that job.”

According to Brenan the renewal of Brenan’s contract included cuts to his pay and his hours. This situation highlights issues in the way the district views him as a contractor, he said. Although he has taught at Costa for eight years, he will have less se-

niority than any other teacher hired directly by the district.

“I love this school,” Brenan said. “I went to school here, I’m an alumI love teaching these kids. All of the other schools in the South Bay have really good engineering courses, and ours, with [my] eight years of experience teaching it, is one of the better ones. We’ve had students coming from other schools to this school, specifically for engineering courses

and I wanted to keep that going.”