Troy School District hires 12 new staff members for 2015-2016

The Troy public schools will be welcoming five new teachers, two new paraprofessionals and five new counselors to the school system this year.

“Hiring five new teachers is pretty common,” Jacob Francom, Troy’s Superintendent, said. “This year we had a teacher move with her husband. One retired, it’s just personal reasons. Normally we hire two or three new teachers.”

The majority of the new-hires have moved to the Troy area to teach in the Troy Public Schools.

Tabitha Maust, is from Billings and is recent college graduate. She will be teaching high school language arts and Spanish.

Rachel Beede will be teaching high school language arts.

“She’s taught for a couple of years,” Francom said. “She spent some time teaching in Japan at international schools. She’s moving here from Billings. She went to school in Tennessee.”

Brittany Katzer lives in Libby and moved to the area with her husband. She will be a part-time elementary counselor. Before moving to Libby, she worked in Thompson Falls and the Kalispell area.

“We haven’t had an elementary counselor for the past few years,” Francom said. “The part-time counselor is something new.”

Rachel Johns will be teaching in the elementary school. She was a substitute teacher in Troy and Libby last year.

Alinon Arpin has moved to the Troy area from Ennis. He will be teaching in the elementary school.

“He’s a fire fighter,” Francom said. “He was in the Peace Corps over in Africa.”

Tisee Lewis moved to Troy from Oklahoma with her two kids. She will teaching junior high language arts and spent time teaching in Africa.

Scott Bertsch will be the high school intervention coordinator. Bertsch is from Sandpoint, Idaho, and worked at the private school up in the Yaak the past 12 years.

Dean Jennings is an Altacare therapist and moved to the Troy area from Cut Bank.

“Altacare is in school therapy program,” Francom said. “It’s funded through Altacare. They do all the Medicaid. The Altacare therapists are housed in the school, but they are not employees of the district. They each have a caseload like any therapists except they are able to work with them throughout the school day. They can work with them during a class period. They can meet with them an hour a day or they can have group therapy. They work with our most at risk kids.”

Jason Newcomb is another Altacare therapist. He started in Troy in May and moved here from Mississippi with his wife and two kids.

Rikki Luebke just graduated with a degree in chemistry and moved to the area from Indiana. She is an AmeriCorps volunteer.

“The AmeriCorps volunteer is brand new to the school,” Francom said. “It’s a huge boost to us to get an AmeriCorps volunteer. It’s funded through AmeriCorps. Rikki will be working with our kitchen ladies and our health teachers to promote healthy eating and healthy living. We are one of three high schools in the state that got an AmeriCorps volunteer.”

Francom said that the AmeriCorps volunteer is the next step in improving their lunch program.

“We had to apply for it,” he said. “We’ve received a number of grants in the past two years that helped us improve our breakfast in the classroom and our lunch program. Our lunch ladies have been great in working with the changes the government has been doing with the nutritional requirements. I heard about this grant and we were fortunate enough to get it.”

Jake Swartzendruber will be an elementary paraprofessional and is from Libby.

“Everybody knows a Swartzendruber in Libby,” Francom said.

Mellonie Roesler-Begalke is an elementary paraprofessional and is from the Troy area. She had been teaching at Head Start.

“Mellonie had been working at Head Start and we kind of stole her from them,” Francom said.

Francom said that the Troy school system is excited to have the new hires be part of the community.

“We have been pretty fortunate to find the people that we have,” he said. “They are all great additions to our school system.”