Under the trend of decreasing enrollment, some teachers now work between different FUHSD high schools for full-time employment. One of them is Mandarin teacher Zoey Liu, who spent the first few years splitting between either LHS and MVHS, or FHS and MVHS. While the district accounts for travelling time as one period, Liu believes that sometimes that time “doesn't even feel like enough”.

 

“When you finish teaching, you can’t just leave right away because you need to clean things up and talk with students,” Liu said. “Ideally, I would like to finish taking attendance and homework because all my records are here. If I don't finish the work, I need to carry a big bag of unfinished work while also carrying the materials I need for the other place.”

 

Beyond the physical weight of carrying materials and the travelling time between campuses, many teachers navigate the mental load of switching between campuses. Ceramics teacher David Bigelman believes that the “mindset transition” is what is the hardest for him.

 

“The drive to FHS during the third block takes about 10–15 minutes and is fairly easy,” Bigelman said. “The harder part is the mental transition because you have different systems, different schools and I'm also teaching different kinds of classes: English at FHS and Art at MVHS.”

 

Even though Bigelman undergoes mental adjustments from switching subjects and campuses, the classroom experience for his students feels less impacted. For students like junior Zeeana Narsian, Bigelman's morning absence simply means utilizing the afternoon hours when she needs extra time for her artwork.

 

“I don't really come in during the morning, and if I were to come in, I would come in after school,” Narsian said. “I think Art is really fun, and I like how I can just come in and do whatever I want. It's a good time to talk to my friends, and it's also calming to just do some artwork.”

 

While some MVHS students find ways to adapt to their teacher’s split schedule to finish their work on time, less time for deeper connections outside of the classroom nevertheless makes it hard for teachers to feel that they truly belong.

 

“At CHS, I've only had two classes, and it feels like I just go there on some days and then leave,” Jen said. “It doesn't feel like I'm included as much compared to Monta Vista, where I'm here for longer during the day.”

 

While some teachers struggle with feeling ignored, Liu encounters the opposite challenge, where she feels guilty about her stronger attachment to one campus over the other. 

 

“I had taught longer at Monta Vista, I definitely felt a closer affinity with the Monta Vista community,” Liu said. “At the same time, I feel kind of guilty that I feel stronger about Monta Vista because many of my students, parents and colleagues were very supportive of my work at Lynbrook.”

 

Currently, Liu works solely at MVHS while Bigelman and Jen are still on a split-campus schedule. Liu believes that working at one campus gives her more opportunities to interact and support students.

 

“Right now, I am full-time at Monta Vista, so I can stay for all the tutorials, brunch, lunch, their free periods, seventh period and even after school, which gives me a lot of time to help and interact with students,” Liu said. “However, when I'm splitting, it's very clear-cut because I have to leave after Monday's tutorial so I can go to LHS.”

 

Liu had additionally mentioned that split-campus opportunities are usually offered to newer teachers in a department or when someone chooses to teach at two campuses. For Jen, who recently joined the school in 2025, he is grateful for the split-campus opportunities he can get in PE.

 

“I think PE is in a unique position where the number of students is going down, so I'm happy to take whatever I can get,” Jen said. “I'm happy about the split-site assignment because I get to experience what it's like to be at different schools.”

 

While many teachers accept the split roles to maintain full employment, Bigelman deliberately chooses his split-campus schedule. However, whether the split-campus status is predetermined by the district or willingly chosen, as enrolled students in FUHSD continue to decrease, more split-campus assignments will be an unavoidable path for many new teachers seeking full-time positions. 

 

“For me, it's more of a choice because I chose to teach Art in addition to English,” Bigelman said. “For a lot of teachers who don't have that option: making it easier to pick up skills in other subject areas would be helpful so they can stay at one school if they want.”

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