Social Studies teacher Bette Finalyson is new to Radford, but has had decades of teaching experience beforehand. Finlayson started her career as both a KHON-TV morning producer reporter and a Department of Education (DOE) high school teacher at Dole Middle School. 

“I worked from 2 in the morning to 7 in the morning, and then I went to work for the DOE,” she said “I worked from 8 to 2. And that was a little much, it was too hard to get up at 1 in the morning and go to work, and then work for KHON and also teach school as well, so I stopped doing that.”

After Finlayson left KHON, she then started working at Farrington High School during the day, and also taught at Hawaii Pacific University and University of Hawaii at night.

“I was working there and I started teaching college after school at night, and that was an easier schedule than having to wake up really really early in the morning and be so tired all day,” she said.

Finlayson taught at Farrington High School until she and her husband moved to the mainland for her husband’s tech job. She recently moved back to Hawaii to pursue a teaching job at Radford. 

“We really missed Hawaii, we loved it, and so we just moved back. I always heard that Radford is a really good school, and so, therefore, I took a job here,” she said. 

Finlayson currently teaches American Problems, AP Psychology, Modern History of Hawaii, and Participation in Democracy in Room 265.