After serving as a teacher at RCHS for several years, Social Studies and sociology teacher Dr. Sandra Hayslette is scheduled to take a leave of absence for the 2017-2018 school year.

“There is some traveling that my husband and I want to do together, and it became apparent around Christmas that there might be an opportunity for us to do this,” said Hayslette. “But it wasn’t until January that we figured out that we could really make it work.”

Hayslette and her husband have work schedules that have not allowed them to travel extensively together since they have been married. They decided that they would take this opportunity to experience various destinations together as a family.

“My husband is a camp director, and he basically moves out June first  and comes back in the first or second week in August,” said Hayslette, “and that’s right when I start back to school. The work is so intense on both ends that we just never have gotten a chance to travel together.”

Although all travel details have not been worked out, Hayslette plans to have an extended stay in Costa Rica. Hayslette’s daughter Celie, a freshman at RCHS, will be traveling with them and will have the opportunity to study Spanish in a full immersion setting. Hayslette expressed her gratitude at the opportunity to have their whole family together while they travel.

“We talked about doing this kind of traveling when we retire, but then Celie won’t be there,” said Hayslette, “so we are just incredibly lucky to be able to pull this off.”  

In addition to their stay in Costa Rica, Hayslette hopes to be able to make places such as the Grand Canyon in the western United States a destination during their travels. Shorter semi-local trips are in the plan due to the opportunities for environmental studies in the area.

“There’s a lot of places in central and southern Appalachia that we would like to see, too,” said Hayslette. “My husband is a botanist; he works in ecology, and since Celie will be studying biology, we are going to get to go see those places on relatively short trips.”

After her year away, Haylsette does not have any current plans to change any parts of her schedule. Although she realizes that it is not in her control, she hopes to return to the same position that she currently holds.

“It is expected that I will come back and teach what I am teaching now,” said Hayslette, “but it is not guaranteed that I will get the same set of classes. I’m also not guaranteed to get my classroom back, but I’m open to what comes.”