Science Teacher of the Year Scott Coonfare has only been at the school for two years but he is making strides in both his teaching and his achievements.

Before teaching Coonfare was a chef and general manager at casual restaurants. And after selling his restaurant he transitioned to teaching.

“Teaching was always something I wanted to do and after selling my restaurant with my wife I tried it and it has been a great time,” Coonfare said.

Being a teacher for 16 years has allowed Coonfare to see students grow and change and it has given him more than a few stories of teaching students.

“I have had students who didn’t like science and now they are working with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” Coonfare said. “Basically there are a lot of different instances where science isn’t something my students liked, but after getting them to do real science a lot of my students saw science as what they wanted to major in.”

Coonfare loves teaching kids and teaches differently with every class depending on the classe’s attitude.

“I teach science differently every year because science changes and that’s the joy of it,” Coonfare said. “I try to keep it as fresh as possible so its always new for the class.”

Coonfare has no plans on leaving teaching and does not want a higher paying job as he believes teaching is what he should be doing.

“I had higher paying jobs before as a chef and there is always a trade off with hours and commitment, because here there are only nine hours,” Coonfare said. “It is much more enjoyable here than my previous job.”