The beginning of every school year comes with many changes here at Dreyfoos. Most are beneficial for students and teachers alike, but they can be hard to adjust to, especially when these changes involve people that the Dreyfoos community has become close to. The visual department is experiencing a major change when it comes to staffing, as former visual dean Jenny Gifford has stepped down from her position and is no longer teaching at Dreyfoos.

“Ms. Gifford has decided to take a teaching position at [New World School of Arts in Miami]. She is still teaching and will also now have the opportunity to teach at the college level,” assistant principal Correy Ferrera said. “The decision was made fairly recently as this was an opportunity that just came up. She was a pivotal piece of our faculty and her love and passion for education and art speaks for itself. I know that the students will miss her dearly, as the teachers and staff already do.”

Ms. Gifford has spent many years teaching at Dreyfoos, and has made a remarkable impression on her fellow coworkers and students, as well as the visual department as a whole, so administration saw it fit that her successor was a member of the staff equally invested in helping the department flourish to the best of its abilities. Visual teacher, and now also visual dean Lacey Van Reeth has taken the position.

“Doctor Atherly asked me to take over, so I said yes,” Ms. Van Reeth said. “I actually graduated from Dreyfoos, from the visual arts department, so I was happy to take the position.”

Of course along with this change will come more, primarily in the visual staff.

“We [are in] the process of interviewing qualified potential art teachers to come join the Visual Dept to teach the courses that Ms. Gifford taught while here,” Ms. Ferrera said. “As we all know, every year brings with it changes and potential for change. The only significant change that I see as of right now is bringing on a new faculty member in the Visual Arts department.”

Over the course of time that Ms. Gifford spent at Dreyfoos, many students and staff alike have grown close to her, and though they are sad to see her go, many are happy that she made the decision to branch outside of her comfort zone.

“Mrs. Gifford is passionate about teaching, and she taught me to realize that each person is a unique individual,” Ms. Van Reeth said. “Mrs. Gifford and Mrs. Jefferson were very close. I think with Mrs. Jefferson’s passing last year, Mrs. Gifford saw that she needed to take her own advice to change and do new things. She’s developing, but she loved teaching here at Dreyfoos, and she was an awesome dean.”

Although Ms. Gifford has moved on from Dreyfoos, she will still continue to pursue her passion for teaching students about the various facets of visual arts, but the impression that she made on her former students was one that will help them follow their own artistic ambitions in their futures.

“When coming to Dreyfoos, I thought that being a good artist meant you had to translate something you saw as realistically as possible onto paper,” visual junior Dalton Taylor said. “Ms. Gifford taught me , along with many other things, that there is more to art than a fruit bowl. I would not be the artist [and] person that I am today if it was not for her wise words of wisdom, and although she will be incredibly missed, I know I have the skills I need to grow.”

Ms. Gifford was not available to be interviewed for this story.