Mr. Maynard has been teaching for nearly 50 years, but it wasn’t until the late 80’s that his students began calling him “Santa.”
“I’ve had a beard since about 1968,” said Maynard. “It was the kids who [started the name].”
The jolly-looking substitute teacher is referred as “Santa” all year round, and he doesn’t mind obliging his fans. He grows his white beard out during the holidays, though it’s trimmed the rest of the year.
“You just get into the spirit of things,” he said. “I’ll be sitting at Starbucks with my wife and people will come up and want to sit in my lap.”
“And I don’t even know them!” he laughs.
Maynard first dressed up for students when he was the principal at Valley Vista. He dressed up for the children in the Teen Mothers Program. Students could bring their children in and take pictures with “Santa.”
“I didn’t think it was a good idea, but I did it for the kids,” he said.
Maynard also began dressing up for the receptionists in the office. Receptionist Mary Barnum said they began calling him “Santa” because he was very jolly.
“He’s a great educator and a remarkable man,” she said. “He helped kids who’d made wrong choices to make good choices.”
And during Christmastime, he would dress up and the office workers could bring their grandchildren in.
“We really like Mr. Maynard,” said Barnum. “Santa lives.”
Mr. Maynard resumed his role as Santa today to promote the canned food drive. Students could pay two dollars or two cans of food in the Bowl in return for a picture with him.
ASB said they asked Maynard to dress up while he was on campus one day.
“We offered to compensate him for his time,” said ASB member Julie Jackson (’13). “But he said he would do it for free.”
“He even had his own suit!” she said.
