LEA WELCOMES OUR NEWCOMERS!
At our New Year’s Celebration on Inservice Day #1, Aug. 27, 2007, Littlestown’s school principals introduced almost three dozen new teachers to our district staff. The Littlestown Education Association welcomes all of our new teachers and encourages them to tap into their teams, departments and classroom neighbors for anything they need.
The Rolling Acres Kindergarten team welcomes Jessica Gunther, a New York native and York College of Pennsylvania graduate; mentor: Erin Hahn.
Grade One welcomes Michelle Durange, a Shippensburg University graduate and dedicated Band Mom of John, Justin and Samantha, recent graduates of L-town; mentor: Amanda Smith.
Grade One also welcomes Kate Moore of Carlisle, a Shippensburg University graduate with experience teaching at Rice Elementary in Middletown; mentor: Araby Collins.
Grade Two welcomes Joel Hill of York, a Gettysburg High School and Elizabethtown College graduate. Joel, who has a four-year-old son, was a long-term sub in second and third grades at RA last year; mentor: Myfannie Baker.
Grade Two also welcomes Bill Sweet, who carries on a family tradition in education; Bill’s mother teaches health/phys. ed. in West York and several of his aunts are teachers. He graduated from West Chester University and was a long-term sub in York; mentor: Linda Renner.
Grade Three welcomes Tracey Rinehart Willet, an L-town alumna who graduated from York College in Speech and was certified by Wilson College; she substituted three years for the LASD. She’s the daughter of bus driver/ Littlestown Association- Educational Support Personnel Vice President Vicki Rinehart, and her daughter, Morgan, is in fourth grade at AC; mentor: Nancy Smith.
Rolling Acres also welcomes Marshall University graduate Meghan Ballard to its reading center. Meghan has three children in the LASD; mentor: Betsy Bein.
RA welcomes Sharla Reiter, a native of Altoona and a Messiah College graduate, to its Gifted Education post. Sharla has a three-year-old daughter and a five-month-old son. She comes to us from North Carolina, where she taught Language Arts to gifted sixth graders; mentor: Beth Peart.
Sara Reaver, Hanover native, Penn State graduate degrees in Elementary Education and Rehabilitation, to a Learning Support position; Sara is the daughter of Sharon Goldstein, who retired last year from a third grade classroom at Rolling Acres; mentor: Carleen Russell.
Dawn Dajani, to Learning Support. Dawn is a New Jersey native and graduate of Lock Haven and Towson University, and she has taught Learning Support in PA, MD, and VA. Dawn’s daughter is seven months old.
Principal Larry Ott announced many assignment changes: Littlestown alumna (and LHS Administrative Assistant Weesie Strevig’s daughter) Dani Mitchell to Grade 3, Sally Gove to Grade 2; Beth Peart, from Gifted Education to the Reading Center;
Stephanie Snyder to Teaching Assistant; Darlene Rickrode to RA custodian.
Alloway Creek’s professional staff welcomes new Grade Five teacher Brianna Mummert, New Oxford HS and Millersville University graduate; mentor: Diana Ulrich.
Grade Five also welcomes Larry Baumgardner, a New Oxford HS graduate, Kutztown U. alumnus, and four-year starter for the Kutztown football squad, volunteer football coach for the 7th and 8th grade Bolts; mentor: George Wherley.
AC welcomes Reading Specialist Bill Bennett, a Gettysburg College graduate who’s done post-grad. studies at Marywood; mentor: Carrie Soliday.
Sandy Hartzell, an Orrtanna resident, graduate of Gettysburg HS, the University of Michigan, and Shippensburg University, as Learning Support Teacher. She is also one of the founders of Hundred-Fold Farm, a residential collective near Cashtown; mentor: Mary Heuer.
Natalie White, a Philadelphia native, graduate of Holy Family College;
Grade Four welcomes Jennifer Naylor Gross, a graduate of Spring Grove High School and York College; she did graduate work at Drexel University. She is also a dance teacher for the Performing Arts Academy of York; mentor: Rachael Wire.
Michelle Cleary, also a Philly native, a Holy Family graduate, hired as Teaching Assistant.
Maple Avenue Middle School welcomes seven new teachers:
Greg Gilbert, Learning Support Grade 8, a graduate of Penn State with ten years experience teaching at Hoffman Homes for Youth;
Dan Hankey, MAMS Computer Applications, a Penn State Business graduate certified through Shippensburg, coming via Chambersburg HS; mentor: Barry Wareham.
Hannah Meeson, MAMS English Grades 6-8, a Gettysburg HS and Millersville graduate; mentor: Tina Leon.
Kristen Rebert, Grade 6-8 Math, a graduate of East Stroudsburg; mentor: Andrea Raubenstine.
Elizabeth Remmel, a Susquehanna University English graduate who taught at Kutztown HS and is a marathon runner;
Nathan Staub, Grades 6-8 Math, a Kutztown U. graduate who plays and coaches volleyball; mentor: Andrea Raubenstine.
Shannon Pennings, MAMS Art, Grades 6-8, a graduate of Millersville in Art Education; mentor: Janet Wagner.
Littlestown High School welcomes John Bennett, a New Oxford native who attended York College and has taught Social Studies at Delone Catholic; he’ll teach Plato and coach football;
Trinh Bitzer is now teaching LHS Art; she’s a Mechanicsburg native who graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Art Ed. and Art History, served as a long-term sub in Schuykill, and is a practicing artist; mentor: Sally Becker.
Ashley Coleman joins the Social Studies Department; she graduated from Eastern York and Millersville, taught middle school overseas, and is a six-year veteran of the Army National Guard; mentor: Brian Weible.
Steve De Riggs takes over Driver’s Education; he is a Massachusetts native who graduated from York College, taught Social Studies and Driver’s Ed at Gettysburg and in South Carolina.
Jeff Dougherty joins the LHS Technology Department; he’s a graduate of Eastern York,
Millersville U., and taught middle school in Central York. He was also a professional Country and Western singer in Nashville, TN; mentor: Thom Leib.
Jackie Goodyear joins the Family and Consumer Science Departmnet after long-term substitute posts in Lehigh, Gettysburg and New Oxford. She graduated from Millersville and has a Master’s from Wilkes U. in technology; mentor: Brenda Lyter.
Andrew Hicks also joins the Social Studies department after earning his BS in History from Towson U. and working four years in the Baltimore County schools; he plays guitar and soccer and runs soccer camps; mentor: Kathy Hevner.
Sara Lawyer is an LASD graduate with degrees in English and Criminology from York College of Pa., two years of English teaching in Stafford County, Va. She’s the former Sara Mauck, married to a Carroll County English teacher, and is head JH Field Hockey coach; mentor: Patrice Smith.
Michelle Weaver Rodriguez is also an LASD graduate with degrees from Penn State and Immaculata College in Secondary Social Studies and Special Ed. (Master’s). She has subbed for the LIU and is active in her church. Her mom is Barb Weaver, veteran administrative assistant at Maple Avenue.
James Statler is the new LHS Metal Teacher, a graduate of East Pennsboro and Millersville U. He taught at Manheim Township as a long-term sub, loves to fish in Canada, and commutes from Enola; mentor: Thom Leib.
Principal Bryant Meckley also announced the following assignment shifts:
Bonnie Showvaker, our Negotiations Team’s Numbers Woman, from Maple Avenue to LHS Math;
Nicki Reynolds moves from Emotional Support to Learning Support at LHS;
Will Posner, long-term sub, is teaching Learning Support until Molly Lankham returns from maternity leave;
English teacher and Soccer Coach Tim Stich moved from Grade 8 English at MAMS to Sophomore English at LHS;
Rene Bruder moves from Plato Teacher (Reading and Math Remediation) to Learning Support.