I taught at Coachella High School for two years...and what brought me there ..or who brought me there was Jim Zoetewey.I was in Jackson Wyoming at the time enjoying a summer job after getting my teaching degree, ..and Jim was a friend of our family from our Christian Reformed Church in Bellflower (CA). He had been teaching at CV for a year after completing his masters-in-teaching (at the same college as myself). So he told me there was an opening for an English teacher..and i flew out, interviewed with the principal (Bill Connell at the time, a retired Air Force officer) and got the job. Jim had just bought a brand new house with a pool etc in Indio and offered me a room for rent. I started teaching in the fall, but there was a new principal (Alex Franco) who didn't want to keep non-tenured teachers, or maybe non-tenured white teachers. Jim was let go after his second year ("without cause" meaning not for bad or punitive reasonsbut simply per the principal's personal discretion, like or dislike, or any arbitrary reason , or no reason at all). I stayed a second year but then decided to go on to my true calling, Christian ministry & evangelism. I may have liked to keep teaching but the principal wasn't being too friendly with me either . Anyways, at the end of the school year i took a month trip to Africa and upon return I found out that Jim Zoetewey had died in a car accident on the way to the Big Bear area for a youth pastor conference. Very tragic. I think at least one other died as well, and maybe some serious injuries. Very sad all the more so given the way a lot of us were mistreated by Alex Franco at Coachella. Jim was stuck with a brand new house and no income...I'm sure it was not easy for him in a lot of ways. I'm glad he knew Jesus Christ and was active with the church.
