In the 2025-2026 school year, Campolindo welcomes several new teachers to campus. Coming from diverse previous experiences and areas of knowledge, these new teachers bring their expertise to Campo with an excitement to give to the Campo community and aid every student.
Ms. Martinez (Visual Performing Arts) – Lauren Kawamoto
With English and former Drama teacher Chris McNevin’s departure from the drama department at the end of last year, Melissa Martinez was welcomed by both returning and new drama students who had been unsure about which direction the class was going to take.
“I started teaching at Las Lomas last year, and I knew that Campo was losing their drama teacher, so when they asked me if I wanted to come and teach this class, I had time in my schedule,” Martinez said as she reflected on her reasons for coming to Campo. She also mentioned her prior experience of meeting Campo drama students from the annual Shakespeare festival hosted locally, adding, “I thought they were really talented and sweet.”
When considering such a change in faculty, senior Reeve Ojeda had his opinions, as his previous experience as a drama student under McNevin also serves as a testament to Martinez’s teaching style: “She’s worked on other projects too, so she balances her time really well, and in terms of the community, she does things very differently from McNevin, but drama has always been tight-knit.”
Similarly, freshman Milena Shapiro, who reported her enjoyment of the class so far, talked about the activities that Martinez has put her own spin on. “We do improv sometimes, or we do scenarios; they give us a script, or we write a mini-script and five minutes to do something.” She mentioned how these activities culminated in her ultimate reason for joining the class, inspiring her to bring her best to each of these skits.
“My big goal,” Martinez concluded, “is to create a bigger community inside of Campo and outside of Campo for this class…I’m hoping to bring guest artists to come in to work with the students, and right now I’m talking to a Berkeley rep to get Campo students into their theater festival.” With her welcomed instructional approach, Martinez confirmed her commitment toward furthering the welcoming environment that drama has to offer.
Ms. Graff-Baker (Physics) – Miya Iwasaki
New Physics in the Universe and AP Physics 1 teacher Kristen Graff-Baker, is enjoying Campo so far. After teaching all around the world in places such as London and Galapagos Islands, she finds herself teaching in California. While she enjoys teaching science classes most, Graff-Baker has also taught Geography and English. The science classes she has taught include Chemistry, Physics, and Environmental Science.
Graff-Baker’s favorite part about teaching is seeing something click for her students after they didn’t understand it. One of her goals is to learn how to use Canvas and to stay up to date on grading.
Junior Amaliia Budiak is enjoying her class so far. She said, “I feel like, even though it’s a stem class, Graff-Baker makes it fun and that’s why it’s not as difficult for me to learn it.” One thing that she enjoyed was when her class had a dance break to the hit movie Kpop Demon Hunters. Junior Gavin Cameto is also enjoying her class so far. He likes Graff-Baker’s teaching style and how she admits when she’s wrong. He’s looking forward to the bridge project, where students can design and build bridges out of cardboard and experiment to see which can support the most weight, Graff-Baker has done at her previous schools.
Ms. Fay (English 3) – Miya Iwasaki
After teaching in Oakland, Berkeley, and New York, new English teacher Francesca Fay ended up at Campo. She teaches English 2 and English 3 for sophomores and juniors. One of Fay’s main goals this year is to get to know her students both in the classroom and outside of the classroom.
Junior Dylan Flynn is enjoying Fay’s class. He says because his class is small, he has been able to get a lot of one on one teaching with her. He says one of the reasons he enjoys Fay and her class is because she lets him sit with his friends. He also enjoys her class because “she talks to us about stuff other than English, she gives us a lot of time to do work, and she’s also just nice.” One thing he’s looking forward to is group projects. Junior Selam Ermias is looking forward to the fun projects they’re going to do in Fay’s English 3 class. She also enjoys being able to sit with her friends.
“I like the way she teaches,” Junior Brooke Robles said. “… I think that overall this is going to be a good year.”
Mrs. Boitor (Living Earth) – Anya Houston
New Living Earth teacher Alexandra Boitor is excited to be a part of the Campo community and has inspired plans for the year. Her past experience as an outdoor educator by Yosemite National Park gives her a nuanced, unique connection to the subject of science. Nine years ago she moved into the classroom as a science middle school teacher and now in high school at Campo hopes to continue translating her passion for the environment into the academic setting. Boitor said, “I would like to engage my students with some current scientific research about the ocean specifically.” Boitor said the science department has “adopted a float that is going to go in the ocean to record lots of data…the data will be used by other grade levels as well.” As we get more headway into the school Boitor hopes to instill in her students an appreciation for science. She wants students to “be curious and ask questions” believing this brings multiple forms of success.
Mrs. Survilas (World History) – Emily Dobson
New World History teacher, Hannah Survilas is enjoying her first year full time teaching job in the United States. She taught for two years in Madrid, teaching English and History and found a passion for teaching history. She then taught in Orange County for a year but decided to move to the Bay area because she loved the area. She decided to apply to teach at Campo because she saw they were hiring and she could not be happier with her decision.
“I really didn’t know how lucky I was to land a job at Campo. I couldn’t have landed in a better place with really supportive teachers, staff, administration, students and community.” Survilas says.
She is excited to continue her journey at Campo teaching World History.
Heidi Hannah (Attendance Office) – Enzo Ng
New attendance technician, Heidi Hannah, thoroughly enjoys her experience of Campo and its community. Prior, she worked in the beverage industry for thirty-five years, moving around the globe to places like Oregon and South America, but most of her work has been centered around Northern California. She picked up passions for gardening and languages, but her most important passions are her kids, an 8th grader and a sophomore.
Hannah’s job revolves around supervising student attendance, communicating, and working with parents and students. She decided to work at Campo because it would allow her to further pursue her most important passion, family. By working at Campo she can be closer to her family and she is delighted about her decision.
“I came to join Campo because I thought it was a great opportunity to be available for my family. I have an eighth grader at Stanley, so he’ll be here next year and I have a sophomore here at Campo and it’s the best opportunity for my children to have me in their lives and around as much as possible to support them,” says Hannah.
Hannah acknowledges that her job can be extremely hard, having to juggle many different tasks with more being added. However she also recognizes that the friendly interactions with students, having a welcoming community, and seeing her son every day are some of the best parts of the job.
Charlotte Fisher (Spanish) – Bella Zheng
New Spanish teacher Charlotte Fisher is excited to be teaching at Campo, and looks forward to a great year. Previously working at California High School for a few years as a Spanish teacher and teacher’s aid in special education before she finally settled in at Campo.
Charlotte’s goal this year is to get to work with students and learn about their interests. She wants to become friends with other teachers and get to know Campo culture a little better. “I really like how the leadership is very involved here, and I was very impressed by all the spirit days and decorations. I felt like that was very unique and that the school went above and beyond.”
