news
We have a few staff changes for next year, and we would like to share them with you before the end of the school year. 

Miss Hannah Gratsch who has been with us for the past two years is moving closer to her family and will not be back next year. Miss Gratsch taught first grade last year, and stepped up and took on the role of Intervention Specialist this year. We appreciate all she has done in her two years and wish her the best. 

Mrs. Susen Arn came out of retirement five years ago to serve as our 5-8 math teacher. Mrs. Arn's experience as an educator has been invaluable to our staff and students over the years. Although Mrs. Arn is re-retiring, we will still see her at SMS volunteering, mentoring our younger teachers, and as a substitute teacher. We are grateful for all Mrs. Arn has done for our school over the years!

Mr. Geoff Hyde will be our new math teacher for grades 5-8, social studies teacher for grades 3/4, and will teach several enrichment classes in grades 5-8. Mr. Hyde did a great job with our 2nd grade this year, and we know he will be great in this new role.

Miss Kacy Gilkerson will be our new 2nd grade teacher. Kacy is Mrs. Kelly's daughter and just graduated from NKU, after student teaching at Augusta this spring. Our students are very familiar with Miss Kacy as she has served as a paraprofessional at SMS while earning her degree. Miss Kacy is very excited to get started, and we are blessed to have her!

Miss Brianna Phillips will be back as our Title 1 teacher next year. She has served as a paraprofessional at SMS for the past few years while finishing up her teaching degree and joined us for the second half of this year as our Title 1 teacher. Miss Bri has been a fantastic addition to SMS and has already helped many of our students. 

Our new Intervention Specialist is familiar to the SMS family. Welcome back Mrs. Maggie Shepherd! Mrs. Shepherd served as a paraprofessional at SMS while finishing up her undergrad from 2016-2019. For the past 2 years she has been an Intervention specialist at Russelville Elementary. In that time she earned her Master's Degree. We are blessed to have Maggie back at SMS!

Please keep all of our new staff, our colleagues who are moving on, as well as our returning staff in your prayers. We have been incredibly blessed to have such talented and caring people working to help our children be the best they can be!