Even though he’s been on campus for the last two years, Mr. Kalina has become a familiar face this year. Students have seen him doing supervision in the hallways and lip-syncing during the Pep Rally. He’s also now the teacher behind the Student Government Association (SGA).

“I’m trying to give SGA a different image this year,” said Mr. Kalina. “It has kind of lost its advocacy role.”

Mr Kalina, who teaches English for College Readiness to seniors as well as SGA, first came to Santaluces after working at University of Florida  as an entry-level administrator. Within SGA, he hopes to accomplish a successful and exciting Homecoming, along with including more events for students to enjoy, such as the faculty lip-sync battle taking place on October 22nd.

“I’m happy to say Santaluces picked me,” said Mr. Kalina. “I didn’t like what I was doing before.”

This year, SGA launched a new website for the first time. President Misha Brahmbhatt said Mr. Kalina has really improved SGA and it is getting better every day.

“[Mr. Kalina] stays really on top of us and makes us want to exceed our goals,” said Brahmbhatt. “SGA feels like a family this year.”

When he’s not planning Homecoming, Mr. Kalina enjoys relaxing at home and watching House of Cards on Netflix. He also happens to be shamelessly addicted to Taco Bell.

When Mr. Kalina was given the opportunity to take over SGA, the ideas that he had for the year really excited the Administration.

“Mr. Kalina is working very hard with SGA and I’m very proud of him.” said Mr Krupa.

In the future, Mr. Kalina looks forward to having a great year with his students and watching them graduate and go on to college. He has high hopes of rebranding SGA and watching it get better in the years to come.

“My goal for the year as an English teacher would be for 80% of my students to attend college in the fall,” said Mr. Kalina. “Actually, scratch that, I want 100% of my students to attend next year.”