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Eight new staff members join Kenmare school

With a new school year, there are new students, new teachers, new friendships and yes, new homework.

9/01/15 (Tue)

Dressed up hallway . . . In addition to eight new staff members, one of numerous upgrades at Kenmare High School over the summer is the hallway leading into the gymnasium. With a fresh coat of paint and silouettes of geese on the walls painted by Jane Kalmbach, the staff is particularly happy with this improvement, as well as many others. 

By Marvin Baker

With a new school year, there are new students, new teachers, new friendships and yes, new homework.

And as the 2015 school year gets under way, eight new staff members are settling in to the Kenmare Public School system.

One of them previously taught in Kenmare, two grew up in the area, two are military spouses and four come to Kenmare from out of state. All seven of the new instructors and one tech person have impressive resumes and years of experience working in public schools.

Ben Curdy

Ben Curdy, the latest to join the Kenmare staff, is the Ag teacher. Curdy was not available for an interview as he was hired last week and just started work on Monday.

Lindsey Stoney

In this day and age, technology is as important as the carton of milk children get with their meals. And that’s where Lindsey Stoney enters the picture.

Stoney, whose husband is in the Air Force, grew up in Bismarck, but has been out of state until now. She said they came back to North Dakota by choice.

“We wanted stability for our children,” she said.

Stoney is the new Internet technology coordinator in the Kenmare School District.

Stoney is looking forward to working with all the teachers in the Kenmare district and she wants to make sure that technology is utilized, mostly for the good of the students.

Stoney comes to Kenmare with a degree from the University of Maryland focusing on Internet technology, networking and security.

She makes the commute from Minot daily and looks forward to  working with everyone in Kenmare.

“I’m a local girl,” she said. “I’ve just been away for a while.”

Keely Heidel

Keely (Torgison) Heidel taught first grade the last two years in Bowbells and joins the Kenmare teaching staff this year as a first grade teacher, along with Alex Hennix.

Heidel, who received her degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, says she really enjoys teaching young children.

“The little ones are my favorite,” she said. “They love to learn and make changes.”

Heidel, who lives in Kenmare, has 15 children in her classroom.

Sarah Beckedahl

Business education is a new avenue for Sarah Beckedahl, but she is up for the challenge and approaches every school day with a sense of humor and an optimistic outlook.

Beckedahl, who grew up in Plaza, spent 13 years in the Minot school system teaching physical education and Kenmare is the first opportunity to use her master’s degree in education with outcome on human performance.

Beckedahl lives in Sherwood where her husband works at the port of entry. She currently has three boys in school. The oldest has graduated and the youngest begins kindergarten this week.

Beckedahl received her degree from Minot State University and spent several years as a mentor with the Education Standards and Practices Board.

“Everything is falling into place,” she said. “I’m excited to meet the new students.”

Kate McClure

Not only does Kate McClure have 18 years experience as an English teacher, she’s also a huge, University of North Dakota hockey fan.

McClure lives in Flaxton and comes to Kenmare from Irondale High School in New Brighton, Minn. She will be the full-time high school English teacher.

She said she is elated about her morning commute to Kenmare and just as excited about the afternoon drive home as “there is no rush hour.”

She is also excited to be teaching in Kenmare, which is a different setting than Irondale. Her first priority was getting to know staff and administration and now she’s had a week of learning her students’ names.

McClure received her undergraduate degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., and a master of fine arts degree from the Los Angeles campus of Antioch University.

“How nice it is to be in a place like this,” McClure said. “I’m falling in love with the landscape. It’s so beautiful here and I’m loving nature... and fishing.”

Fay Froseth

Teaching has always been Fay Froseth’s first love and she admits that sometimes during family vacation trips, she would sometimes formulate lesson plans in her head.

Froseth, who previously spent nine years teaching English and social studies in Kenmare, has spent the past several years as business manager at The Kenmare News.

Last year, she had the opportunity to substitute teach for about six weeks and realized at that time it was time to go back into teaching.

Froseth will be the librarian, floating between high school and elementary school, she will have the seventh grade section of study skills and will teach seventh and eighth grade Read 180.

In addition, Froseth, who received her teaching degree from Mayville State University in 1990, will be the high school yearbook adviser.

She knows the Kenmare school well as she currently has three kids in the district; a junior, an eighth-grader and a fifth-grader, as well as a freshman at the University of North Dakota.  Froseth and her husband Terry, own and operate The Kenmare News.

“It feels like I never left,” she said. “I’m very comfortable in this environment.”

She says she’s always been proud of Kenmare and hopes she’s an asset to the program. She wants everyone to utilize the resources she can make available to them.

Matt Hove

This will be Matt Hove’s eighth year of teaching, but his first in North Dakota. He taught three years in Arizona and four years in California, before coming to Kenmare.

Hove, who has degrees in physical science and physical education, and a master’s degree in sports administration, is the middle school science teacher, as well as the head football coach.

Hove brings a different style of football to Kenmare after having coached professional football in France for a time. He has been building and motivating the players to have a respectable season in Region 6, 9-man competition.

“You can coach football, or you can be a football coach,” Hove said.

Having spent the past several years in schools with as many as 3,800 students enrolled and as few as 580, Kenmare is by far the smallest school in which Hove has taught.

Amanda Cox

After having taught health, science and phy-ed for three years in Vermont, Amanda Cox fits right into Kenmare as she will be teaching high school phy-ed and health.

Cox, who is a military spouse, says she likes the small-town atmosphere, even though Kenmare is much smaller than her previous school in Vermont, which had 60 students per class.

Last year she did some teaching at the Minot Air Force Base.

Cox, who grew up in New Hampshire, received her post-secondary education at Springfield College in Massachusetts, which she reminds us, is the birthplace of basketball. She also ran track in Springfield.

She says her big thing in Vermont was coaching, but with a 4-month-old baby, she is putting coaching aside for now, “Maybe next year,” she says.

“The administration here has been super supportive and have welcomed me since day one,” Cox said. “I’m excited to teach health and PE and, Kenmare has a weight room!” ... Read EVERY WORD on EVERY PAGE of The Kenmare News by subscribing--online or in print!