New staff, teachers welcomed

With the 2017-18 school year underway, there are plenty of new staff members joining the district.

Curt Myer

Hot Springs County School District has a new Dean of Students with the move to principal by Catie Deromedi.

Curt Myer, a Ten Sleep native and University of Wyoming graduate will be taking on the Dean's duties, splitting his time between the high school and the middle school.

Myer has previously taught P.E. and health at the University of Wyoming Prep School in Laramie and not only taught, but was part of the football coaching staff in Worland for four years.

His move to Thermopolis comes after four years in Sheridan where he was the graduation director, in charge of getting the drop-out rate down and graduation rates up. He successfully brought the graduation rate up 10% within a year and cut the drop-out rate in half.

Myer brings his wife, Nadine, with him along with his six-year old daugher, three-year old son and eight-week old daughter.

"I've always wanted to be here," he said. "I have a lot of friends here already, a lot of people I went to college with.

"Thermopolis is on its way up. There is a lot of potential here with the PLC program and we're going to focus on ACT."

Myer said they will pay for students to take the ACT in February this year and then they will take the "real deal" in April. The plan is to work with the juniors on taking the test on Fridays.

"Those ACT scores are used for a lot of things," he said, "not all scholarships mean college."

While Myer will be handling a majority of the discipline issues, he said, even there, he looks for teachable moments and uses compassion in his decisions.

"Communication is key," he said.

Krista Klaproth

Krista Klaproth is joining the Ralph Witters Elementary team as a Title I reading teacher.

Klaproth attended Texas Tech University, and graduated in 2011. This is her eighth year as a teacher and her 11th in education. She was a para for three years while finishing her degree, then she taught first grade for two years, fourth grade for two years and fifth grade for four years.

In her capacity at RWE, Klaproth said she will work with the intervention program, noting this is for struggling students who are not in Special Education but who still need some extra help.

She looks forward to becoming more involved with the students and the community, as she and her husband, Kenly, moved to Thermopolis just this summer. She also hopes to have a good influence on the students reading abilities and they will improve over the year. No matter their level, her goal is to help all students make some progress.

Darren Elder

Parents and students will see a new face in the high school's math department this year, Darren Elder, who chose Thermopolis for his first teaching position.

Elder comes to us from Powell, where he was raised and attended NWCC. He continued his education at the South Dakota School of Mines before getting his Master's Degree from Grand Canyon University.

His family has joined him in Thermopolis, his wife and three children, a second grader, third grader and a fifth grader.

Elder worked in his family's machine shop for many years, but the stress of the business got to be too much for him when he began running the shop, missing so much time with family.

He said his wife kind of pushed him in the direction of teaching as he had spent about 15 years working with a local youth group and thought teaching would be a good fit.

"I believe in setting educational goals for the kids," he said. "Then I have them set their own goals and we take a look at how we can meet those goals.

"They need to know how much an educator cares."

He will be helping out with the football team this fall and he's very excited for the opportunity.

Elder said he's big into sports and loves anything outdoors – hunting, fishing, rock climbing and just exploring.

Ashley Cleare

New to the kindergarten team at Ralph Witters Elementary this school year is Ashley Cleare.

Cleare grew up and graduated high school in Spring Creek, Nev., then attended college at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, N.D., where she also ran track, and earned her Bachelor's in Elementary Education. After school, she moved to outside Atlanta, Ga., and taught kindergarten for six years.

She moved to Wyoming to be closer to family, and taught Reading Recovery in Sheridan. She explained this is an intensive reading program for first grade students. After four years, she came to Thermopolis.

Cleare is excited to be back in a classroom, as Reading Recovery is more one-on-one work, and to be back teaching kindergarten. This being the students' first year, she enjoys seeing the students' excitement and growth throughout the year.

With her experience in Reading Recovery, Cleare hopes to be able to identify areas where students are struggling before they hit first grade and work on that. Her son, Aiden, will be starting second grade this year.

Cleare said she's excited to be here and everyone she's met has been great. "Thermop seems like a great place to raise my son."

Dana Bjorhus

Joining the team at Ralph Witters Elementary this school year is Dana Bjorhus, who is teaching Physical Education.

A 2013 graduate of Hot Springs County High School, Bjorhus attended Northwest in Powell for two years, where she also played basketball. Though she earned her Associate's in Business Administration, she decided physical education was a field she wanted to pursue. She earned her teaching degree from UW and just graduated this past May, and this marks her first year of teaching.

Bjorhus is excited to work with the students, watching them learn, trying new things and improving their skills and behavior. She's also excited to see what it's like to be a teacher, and further explained in going through the practicum and student teaching she didn't spend a whole year with the students.

"That will be interesting, to just see what it takes and to get some experience."

Though not very familiar with the curriculum, Bjorhus said she has an idea of what the previous teacher did and a lot of her curriculum will be similar but she'll be bringing a different element in presenting tasks. She is also looking to help students expand into different activities or games they might not have experienced. "Hopefully I can bring that in there and expand their knowledge outside of traditional ideas about P.E."

Bjorhus is excited to be back in Thermopolis and begin the year at Ralph Witters Elementary.

Next week's edition will continue the series on new staff.