ELLSWORTH – Ellsworth Community School District will have a number of new faces this school year who are raring and ready to go. Learn a little about them here: Katelyn Asmus

Position: Occupational therapist

Hometown: Hudson Education: UW-La Crosse, University of New England (Portland, Maine) Hobbies/interests: Knitting, spending time with my family, being outdoors Family: I grew up in Hudson with my parents and two siblings. The newest addition is a sweet little Shih Tzu who loves family road trips as much as we do!

What are you looking forward to most this year? Getting to know the students I’ll be working with and the teachers I’ll be supporting.

Lucas Blodgett

Position: Middle school special education teacher

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: Bethel University

Hobbies/interests: Hunt- ing, fishing, camping, coach ing my children (baseball, basketball), just hanging out with my family Family: My wife and I live in River Falls. We have three boys: Colton (12), Jacob (11) and Beau (6).

What are you looking forward to most this year? I completed my student teaching last spring at the middle school in Ellsworth. I am excited to come back and work with many of the same great stau and students I worked with last year.

Olivia Bonlander

Position: EHS art teacher Hometown: Chilton Education: UW-Stout Hobbies/interests: Art, reading, walking my dog Sarge Family: I grew up in a town in similar size to Ellsworth, with four younger siblings.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I’m looking forward to building up the art classroom community and decorating the high school halls with amazing student work!

Courtney Brunner

Position: School social worker in the high school and middle school Hometown: Ellsworth Hobbies/interests: I enjoy spending time at our cabin with family. I love ice cream and enjoy spending time outside.

Family: My husband Mark and I have three children: Twin 2.5-year-olds and a 4-year-old daughter. We love country life and spending time outside.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Working with the students! I’m excited to be a part of the Ellsworth School District.

Mitchell Bugni

Position: Eighth grade math teacher

Hometown: Hudson Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: I like to write music, go camping, snowboarding and playing video games.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Making connections with students.

Aaron Campbell

Position: Custodian Hometown: Ellsworth Hobbies/interests: Working on and detailing cars and

trucks

Family: I’ve been married to my wife for 13 years. I have

three kids: A 12-year-old and my twins are 6 years old.

Madison Feld

Position: Speech language pathologist assistant

Hometown: Algoma Education: UW-Eau Claire

Hobbies/interests: Traveling and being outdoors

Family: I live with my sig- nificant other and my 2-year- old Labradoodle. The rest of my family lives back in my hometown.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Getting to know the stau and gaining experience with the children!

Elizabeth Fish

Position: Special education teacher

Hometown: Hudson Education: UW-Eau Claire

Hobbies/interests: Spending time with family and pets, reading, being outside and exploring Family: I have three siblings, a brother and two sisters. Nick and Caitie are 20 and Maddi is 18. My sister Caitie has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair. She is a big reason I went into special education.

What are looking forward to most this year? Getting to know my students and the community.

Klaudia Friedrich

Position: Second grade teacher

Hometown: Born in Poland, then lived half of my childhood in Chicago and the other half in Apple Valley, Minn.

Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Reading, hiking and scrapbooking

Family: Husband Michael, daughter Julia (three months)

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Getting to know my students, stau, families and the Ells worth community!

Brandon Fuhrman

Position: Director of Bands Hometown: Hudson Education: UW-Eau Claire

Hobbies/interests: Traveling and hiking, performing with diuerent groups (jazz, orchestra, polka, etc.), disc golfing

Family: My parents Keith and Susan Fuhrman currently live in Yuma, Ariz. I have one brother (older), Dillon, who also lives down in Yuma following his graduation from UW-Oshkosh with a film and media degree.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I am looking forward to getting to work with all of the music kids and be able to provide them diuerent opportunities to ex press themselves and perform in our department.

Connie Girdeen

Position: Title 1 teacher at EES

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: UW-River Falls and UW-Stout for read- ing certification

Hobbies/interests: Reading and spending time with family Family: I live just outside of Ellsworth with my husband and four kids. My two oldest are in college at UWRF and UWEC. My two youngest will be a junior and freshman at EHS.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I am looking forward to meeting my students and working with families.

Danielle Goodier

Position: Special education

teaching assistant

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: Northwood Technical College

Hobbies/interests: Camping, puzzles and spending time with my family and friends What are you most looking forward to this year? I am so excited to be working with the kindergarten students and stau. I am looking forward to making a connection with the students.

Kendyl Horn

Position: Third grade teacher

Hometown: Neenah Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Sports, hiking, walking the dog, hanging out with friends and family, traveling Family: I have a family of five, with siblings and family across the state and country.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I am most looking forward to meeting my new students, co-work- ers, stau and community.

Emily Kelser

Position: Spanish teacher Hometown: Green Bay Education: UW-Eau Claire

Hobbies/interests: Gardening, cooking, camping, hiking Family: Husband What are you looking forward to most this year?

Working together with Senorita Syverson as a Spanish department!

Danielle Lewis

Position: Seventh grade math teacher

Hometown: Cottage Grove, Minn.

Education: UW-River Falls (graduated May 2021)

Hobbies/interests: Cooking, baking, canning, making arts and crafts, gardening, sewing, swimming, paying basketball, playing musical instruments, watching TV and movies, reading, helping with 4-H, and playing video games.

Family: I come from a tight-knit family of five: Mom, Dad, Kyle (older brother), and Aaron (younger brother). We enjoy spending a lot of time together, whether it is to go to dinner, have a bonfire or just sitting around playing cards.

We also love antiquing to- gether to find new treasures and learn about the past. In September, we will be adding another family member as my brother Kyle is getting married. Other than the human family members, we have three Great Danes (Paige, Piper and Charlie), five cats (Squirt, Ace, Arlo, Tony and Gibbs) and four rabbits (Lucky, Gus, Clark and Jasmine). As you can probably tell, we are busy and maybe a little crazy at times, but we are always having a good time living life.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I look forward to meeting all of my new students and families.

I love building relationships and helping everyone foster a love for learning. Math, of course, is my number one passion and I hope to share this with everyone as well. I am excited to start this school year on the right foot and jump into learning.

Emily Lofgren

Position: Special education aide

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: CVTC Hobbies/interests: In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I also love spending time with my cat Patrick.

Family: I have two older sisters, Allie and Cassie, and

my parents are Rich and Tricia Lofgren.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I am looking forward to building a bond with the students and being a part of an amazing school district.

Autumn Ninke

Position: Fourth grade teacher

Hometown: Clear Lake Education: Northland College

Hobbies/interests: Playing with my dog Luna, going for walks/hikes with Luna and my partner Craig, spending with family (grandma’s house), reading, gardening, looking for agates!

Family: I have a large family! I have four brothers who have blessed me sisters-in-law, as well as some of my favorite people in the world (nieces and nephews). It’s chaos, but I’m happy it’s my chaos!

What are you looking forward to most this year? I’m looking forward to building connections with stau and my students.

Hannah Ninneman

Position: Occupational therapist

Hometown: Spring Valley Education: UW-La Crosse (undergrad), St. Catherine’s University (grad) Hobbies/interests: Anything outside, kayaking, hiking, biking, exploring national parks, camping Family: My husband Sam and I welcomed our son Cayden last November. We live on a small hobby farm in the El Paso area and have two dogs, Jack and Ollie.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of the students at Ellsworth Elementary.

Michelle Nyseth

Position: Middle school special education teacher

Hometown: River Falls Education: Winona State University (undergraduate), Bethel University (graduate) Hobbies/interests: Sewing, crafting and playing mini golf with my family What are you looking forward to most this year? As a new teacher in the Ellsworth School District this year, I am looking forward to meeting and connecting with students and stau. My goal is to inter act with students to learn from them and enrich their lives with knowledge along with independent life skills to succeed in daily activities. Earning their respect and helping them grow on a daily basis is such as rewarding experience.

Amy Olson

Position: Second grade teacher

Hometown: New Richmond, but have lived in Ellsworth for 13 years Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Reading, swimming in our pool, and being a mom!

Family: Husband Kyle (grew up in Ellsworth), son Landon (11) and son Blake (10) What are you looking forward to most this year?

I am looking forward to getting to know my students and their families. I look forward to working with an amazing group of people.

Ryan Paul

Position: District substitute Madeline Poulos

Position: Health and physical education

Hometown: Whitehall Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Pickleball, hiking, hammocking

Family: I have four siblings: An older sister and two younger brothers. We all grew up on our family farm in Whitehall where my parents still live.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Building relationships with new students, stau and the Ellsworth community.

Chlya Richard

Position: EES food service Joseph Rodgers

Position: Custodian Hometown: Sumter, N.C.

Hobbies/interests: Working on cars, video games

Family: I have been married for four years. I have 2-month-old twins, a 5-yearold daughter and a 3-year-old daughter.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Making this a career.

Jackie Sanchez

Position: Teaching assistant

Hobbies/interests: Travel, meet new people, spend quality time with my family Family: I live with my family of four. My husband named Jesus, my son Alan, who is in 4K and my daughter Odalis, who is going into eighth grade.

What are looking forward to most this year? Making children’s days happy, making them laugh; also helping the children of our community and creating a welcome and safe environment for everybody.

Katie Seif

Position: Science intern Hometown: Cottage Grove, Minn.

Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Cheerleading coaching, drawing, hiking and video games. Also, Go Packers!

What are you looking forward to most this year? Just being part of the Ellsworth community and getting to know everyone.

Angie Smith

Position: Full-time district- wide substitute teacher

Hometown: Roberts Education: UW-Stout and St. Mary’s University

Hobbies/interests: Playing bingo and game nights with family and friends, drinking ice couee and hockey.

Family: Me, Ty, son Alex, bonus son Landon and a dog named Buck What are you looking forward to most this year?

Getting to know the stau and students in Ellsworth.

Ashley Soley

Position: Payroll and accounts payable specialist

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Being outdoors, flower and vegeta ble gardening, spending time with my family having movie nights, farming and playing outside.

Family: I am an Ellsworth grad and attended UWRF where I met my husband, Eric, who is an agronomist here in Ellsworth at Western Wisconsin Ag. Together we have three children: Lyla (9), Landon (4) and Libby (2).

What are you forward to most this year? I am most looking forward to working in my community and making connections with all of the stau and families in this com munity.

Matt Stacey

Position: Custodian Ruby Straub

Position: Teaching assistant

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: Currently attending UW-River Falls, majoring in elementary education Hobbies/interests: Golfing, camping, spending time with friends and family What are you looking forward to most this year? I am looking forward to seeing new faces and working with new students. I am excited to continue learning to help students the best I can.

Rebecca Syverson

Position: Spanish teacher Hometown: Eau Claire Hobbies/interests: Music, animals, and learning about cultures Family: My parents live in Eau Claire and I have an older sister and younger brother. I have a grey cat named Siggy.

What you are looking forward to most this year?

Meeting students and co-workers! For the past four years I was living by Lake Michigan in a very factory-dominated area. I’m excited to experience an agricultural area and learn more about the culture here!

Megan Taplin

Position: Special education aide

Hometown: Ellsworth Education: UW-Stout – two years

Hobbies/interests: cooking, baking, traveling, bike rides and spending time with my friends and family.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Making a diuerence in my students’ lives and football games.

Kara Therriault

Position: Kindergarten teacher

Hometown: Grew up in Lakeland, Minn.; now lives in River Falls Education: UW-Stout Hobbies/interests: I love watching my kids play the sports they love: Hockey and lacrosse.

Family: My husband Dan and I have been married 21 years. Our son Tyler is 19, finished welding school and is working. Kiara is a senior and Lily is in seventh grade in River Falls. They all play hockey and my girls play lacrosse in Hudson. We also have three small dogs.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I’m so excited to be here. I can’t wait to meet my students and be a part of this amazing small community. I love to learn and learn so much from my students.

Savannah Wayne

Position: School psychologist

Ashley Zierl

Position: Kindergarten teacher

Hometown: Cadott Education: UW-River Falls

Hobbies/interests: Digital art, audio books

Family: My husband and I live in Elmwood with our son Zakary (fifth grade), who will be attending Ellsworth this fall! We love to spend the summer canoeing and kayaking the Chippewa River with our two small dogs.

What are you looking forward to most this year? I’m looking forward to getting to know the Ellsworth community.

New Ellsworth Community School District staff members met for orientation on Friday, Aug. 19. Photo courtesy of Ellsworth Community School District