Fifteen teachers join staff at Arcadia School District
There will be quite a few new faces in the Arcadia School District this year as 15 new teachers will be working at all three levels of the district.
Of the new teachers, eight will be in the district’s elementary school, six in the middle school and one in the high school.
Molly Toraason is a Whitehall High School graduate who will be teaching four-year-old kindergarten in Arcadia. She was a student teacher in the district last year and said she has had a lot of teachers in her family who she has looked up to. She said she is also bilingual.
Kindergarten teacher Montaya Adams comes to Arcadia from the Holmen School District. She is the youngest of a big family with five brothers and three sisters and said her kindergarten and first-grade teachers taught her the love of school and how fun it can be.
Arcadia High School graduate Dana Haines will be teaching special education in kindergarten-through-second grade this year. Like Adams, she comes from the Prairie View School within the Holmen district. She has four sisters, including two — Taylor Haines and Andrea Izdepski — who also teach in Arcadia. Dana Haines has a twin sister, Mariah, who was born in a different month. She said that she has learned that teaching can be fun and rewarding.
After student teaching in Arcadia last year Mackenzie Hutchins will be a full-time second-grade teacher this year. She was born in Alaska, where she lived for five years and said she became a teacher because she wanted to do something meaningful for the rest of her life.
Anna Schmit taught various grades in Winona, Minn. prior to coming to Arcadia as a third-grade teacher this year. She said she became a teacher because she has always wanted to make a positive impact on the lives of other people. When she’s not teaching, she coaches gymnastics and softball.
Sarah Schultz had two stints as a student teacher, the first as a second-grade teacher in Augusta and the second as a sixth-through-12th-grade Spanish teacher in Altoona. She will teach fifth-grade in Arcadia and said she became a teacher because she is passionate about supporting students through their milestones. She said she is a Type 1 diabetic and in the summer she works at a camp with children who are also Type 1 diabetic.
Sixth-grade language arts and health teacher Rachel Hein comes to the district with five years of experience, teaching fourth, fifth and sixth grades elsewhere. She has been married for 14 years with two sons — ages 11 and 13 — and likes to play board games. She said she became a teacher because of the positive impact teachers have. She said she wants to help struggling students feel successful.
Evan Pagel will be a physical education teacher in Arcadia this year after student teaching in Sparta and Onalaska previously. His family is from Almond and he enjoys hunting, fishing and basketball. He said he became a teacher because of the influence good teachers had on him growing up.
Landon McNamer is a middle school ELL teacher in Arcadia this year. He has previously taught in the La Crosse and Onalaska districts and like Dana Haines, is a twin. He said be was inspired by his high school band teacher and, in college, he had a student who only spoke French who inspired him to help language learners.
Torrey Francois will teach seventh- and eighth-grade science classes. He taught science in Bahrain in the Middle East a year ago. He also has experience as a student teacher in the La Crosse and Arcadia districts, working with high school science teacher Paul Anderson. Francois said he previously worked in law enforcement in California and saw “how terrible people can turn out,” so he decided to switch to teaching so he could help people earlier in life. He is also working on getting his pilot license.
Collin Manley comes to Arcadia as a seventh-grade math and science teacher after teaching in the Independence School District for three years. The AHS grad said he became a teacher to have a positive impact and he wants to help students through their life. He recently became a dog-parent.
Hunter Ryskoski will be a middle school business/STEM teacher after working in the Black River Falls district as a student teacher. He is the third new Arcadia teacher who is a twin and said became a teacher because he wants to be a positive role model. He collects basketball shoes and jerseys.
Danielle Sipos will be a middle and high school band director in Arcadia. She student taught in the Hudson school District and is from New Berlin. She said her first band director encouraged, inspired and supported her into becoming a band director. She said she can play all the instruments and all Disney songs.
Lee Vang will be the high school counselor after previously interning in the district. He has two dogs, Maximus and Penelopy, who he said are not ankle-biters. He likes hiking and Golden Girls and said he became a teacher so he could make a change in students lives and be someone students can connect with.
Taryn McKeeth has taken over for her father as the AHS art teacher. She previously taught in the Alma Center and Black River Falls districts and is married with two children. Her interest include hunting and photography.