Davis High says goodbye to experienced educators

By Alex MiyAMoto HUB Staff

It’s not just the class of 2023 that’s leaving Davis High this June; six teachers are also leaving. Carin Pilon, David Van Muyden, Sherri Sandberg, September Larson, Linda Preciado and Dan Ariola all left their impact on hundreds of students, and are taking away unforgettable memories and lessons.

SHERRI SANDBERG has been working at Davis High for 27 years, teaching a variety of science classes.

“It’s just been a privilege to work with high school students… I enjoy being with young people, and my colleagues and department are great. We all worked well together,” Sandberg said. Something that she has grown to value over the years is getting to watch her students grow throughout the year, especially the occasional field trip Sandberg supervises during the year.

Sandberg’s Chemistry in the Community students work on various habitat restoration locations and her ZoologyBotany class experiences a three-day trip to Catalina Island.

“Watching kids stretch themselves to go snorkeling (at Catalina Island) is always fun,” she said.

DAN ARIOLA has been working in the Davis Joint Unified School District for 34 years.

He has taught physical education at both Holmes Junior High and Davis High.

In addition to teaching he has also been coaching sports in Davis since 1978.

His resume includes coaching 30 years of baseball, nine seasons worth of basketball, and five years of golf. “I’ve been here a while,” Ariola said.

He originally got into coaching baseball his sophomore year of high school, teaching youth in the Davis Babe Ruth League. He’s coached every year since then, racking up a total of 44 years as a coach, only missing one year during the pandemic.

Ariola reminisced on winning three section championships with his varsity baseball team in 2000, 2004 and 2014.

“That was probably the biggest highlight of all my coaching times,”

Sandberg is excited for the future due to her classroom experience.

“People are often worried about the fate of our world, but I’m just so impressed with the thoughtfulness of the young people, and it gives me inspiration for what our world will be like in the future.”

Ultimately, Sandberg wants her students to take away an awe of nature in the world and to always be conscious about the environment. In her career she impacted lots of students, making sure that they knew how much she truly cared for them, oftentimes finding out what students are interested in outside of the classroom and connecting with them in that manner.

After the school year ends, Sandberg is going on a trip with her friends on a one-week walking tour through the Dales and enjoying a couple days in London at the end.

She is looking forward to more traveling, gardening and hanging out with her yellow lab, Abbow.

Ariola said.

What he described as the cherry on top was his son, John Ariola, being on the 2014 championship team. “It was great to have him on the team.”

Along with John, his second son, Joe Ariola highlighted his teaching years. “I loved having Joe in my strengthening class, those were the best times,” Ariola said.

Ariola attended DHS himself, winning senior homecoming royalty and hitting game winning shots right on the campus that he teaches at today.

“I still have a picture of me hitting a shot here,” Ariola said, pointing to a spot in the south gym.

He has had his share of “good memories, both as a student and as a teacher. It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve really enjoyed it,” Ariola said.

After CARIN PILON’s near decade of teaching at Davis High, she is taking away profound friendships and bonds with her colleagues and students.

One of the most fond memories Pilon reflected on during her working career was when she had just started working at the high school and a group of students, whom she’d previously taught at Harper Junior High, carried over an inside joke.

“On my first day of classes at DHS, I entered my room to find several little red rocks, from the landscaping around Harper, placed in random places around the room… on the thermostat, the book cases and my desk. It made me laugh and I returned the favor a couple of years later when I went with Mr. Achimore and several of the same

Counselor LINDA PRECIADO has been working at Davis High for 17 years. Starting off her career as a teacher in Southern California, she figured, “I could help a wider range of students by becoming a counselor.” So she did just that, moving to Davis shortly after.

Preciado has always been one for questions; learning knowledge from her students is something she is taking with her into retirement.

From students teaching her about different pieces of farm equipment to different business proposals, Preciado absorbs it all.

“The student body is so diverse in their passions… I’ve learned a lot from them.” students on a trip to Ashland.”

While Preciado values the knowledge she gains from her students, she also gives her students wisdom.

“It was also great to come over to the high school and have 450 former students on campus,” Pilon said.

Moving into the next chapter of her life, the English teacher feels a sense of completion.

She began her teaching career at the age of 25, starting out in the Bay Area. Recently, a student who Pilon had taught in her first years of teaching reconnected with her, and what came to Pilon as a surprise was that this student, who is now in her mid-adulthood life, has a son at UC Davis.

“That was just a part of the closure, to have one of my first students have a student at UCD; it was just crazy,” Pilon said.

Pilon wants her students to remember that, “language is powerful, amazing and that words matter. Pay attention to them and what’s underneath the words themselves.”

“I want (my students) to have a passion for learning, find what you’re interested in and go for it,” she said.

Preciado is a believer in that every student has a gift: something that they can teach to someone else. “I hope I’ve imparted that in my students: you can always learn something from someone and always be kind; you can never lose if you are kind.”

Although Preciado is ending her career as a counselor, she wants to become a student during her retirement.

“I just want to keep on learning,” Precadio said. “I want to learn Korean, Chinese, I want to go to pastry school… and take art classes at Sac State.”

After 30 years of teaching science at Davis High, DAVID VAN MUYDEN is proud of the influence he’s had on his students. He gets a sense of completion when “kids tell me they did well in chemistry in college, or that they liked the class.”

During his time at DHS, the things Van Muyden most enjoyed were teaching students and also the material of chemistry. “Those two things in order,” he said.

Van Muyden describes some of his most fond memories at

SEPTEMBER LARSON has been a speech and language therapist at Davis High for the past 15 years, loving every moment.

Larson relates the high school to a ship: everyone on board is working hard to get to the shared destination of graduation.

“When our students graduate we want them to be able to advocate for what they want, and to have the well being and confidence to do what they want as well,” Larson said.

When Larson works with her students she strives to not only give them the ability to advocate for what they want but also to have the ability to become their own speech therapist.

DHS as getting to know the amazing students he has had the honor of teaching over all the years.

Ultimately, what he wants his students to take away from his class is to always spread more positivity in their lives.

Come June 14, six days after school gets out and the start of Van Muyden’s retirement, he is hitting the road… on his bike.

With the company of two other retired DHS teachers, Peter Reilly and Brian Ziser, he is going to ride from Washington to Maine: a stretch of nearly 4,500 miles over the course of three months.

“I’m looking forward to that first,” Van Muyden said.

She wants them to be able to realize, “when they need to strategize, to look back and figure out what went wrong so the next time they can do it in an improved way.”

Larson earned her license as a speech pathologist when she was 26.

Throughout her career she has been able to grow tremendously and feels, “like I’m leaving (at my) best, and I know whoever is stepping into my position will be able to grow as much as I did,” she said.