CHS has new teachers, employees
Two new teachers began their duties at Centre High School recently.
Gaea Wimmer isn't exactly a new teacher at Centre High School. As a senior at Kansas State University, she did her student teaching under Cary Granzow at Centre during the 2002-2003 spring semester.
Wimmer is an agricultural education instructor and teaches horticulture, plant and soil science, introduction to agriculture, and metals II. She also serves as an FFA adviser.
Wimmer hales from Fulton, a town in southeast Kansas. She enjoys horseback riding and reading.
She is renting the former Carl Hedstrom farm home six miles northeast of the high school.
"I really like it here," she said. "It feels like home. I lived in the community when I student taught, so I feel a part of it."
She appreciates the support she receives from other teachers, especially from Granzow. The two are working together to reorganize the ag/industrial arts departments.
Sharon Eckstrom lives in the school-owned house at Centre High School. She is a single mom with two children: Christina Beasley, 12, and Michelle Beasley, 9.
This is her first year of teaching. She teaches biology, advanced biology, anatomy and physiology, and physical science. She also is in charge of junior high science projects and serves as adviser to the student council.
Eckstrom graduated from high school in San Jose, Calif. She followed her parents to Lindsborg eight years ago. She said she wanted to get her children out of the big city and felt Lindsborg was a good place to raise kids.
She graduated from Bethany College at Lindsborg in 1999 with a major in biology. She obtained a teaching certificate in December 2002 after spending one year working in a chemical lab at Tony's Pizza in Salina. Her job there was to test ingredients.
Eckstrom moved into her house a week ago Friday. She said she has heard nothing but good things about the school district.
"I like it here," she said. "Everybody knows somebody who graduated from Centre High School and they say it is a good school."
Custodians
Martin Combs of Lincolnville has been a full-time assistant to head custodian Ron Mille since April.
He is the son of Mike and Chris Combs and is a 2000 graduate of Centre High School.
After graduation, he worked at various jobs and was employed at Hillsboro Community Medical Center before coming to Centre.
Holly Hemmer of Lincolnville is a part-time housekeeper at the high school site. She cleans the 1993 addition, as well as the agricultural education building.
Hemmer is the daughter of Mark and Marsha Pagenkopf of Lost Springs and graduated from Centre High School in 1993.
She has spent many summers as a maintenance worker at the school. She also is employed by Marion County Special Education Cooperative as a para-educator at Centre, and is in her ninth year in that capacity.
Hemmer is a single mom with two children: Amanda Floyd, 10, and Hannah Hemmer, 5.
