Holyoke welcomes 6 new teachers

Six new teachers are getting settled into their classrooms at Holyoke School District for the first day of school Wednesday, Aug. 17, at Holyoke JR/SR High School and Thursday, Aug. 18, at Holyoke Elementary School.

The new staff members include Kimberlee Bennett, fourth grade; Cheri Bornhoft, elementary special education; Bailey Chintala, first grade; Jes-c French, social studies and world history; Megan Sprague, third grade; and Flor Varela, Spanish and English as a second language.

Kimberlee Bennett

After retiring from Holyoke Elementary School a year ago, Bennett is “absolutely thrilled to be teaching again.”

She said she was exhausted from chronic pain and fibromyalgia, but now she’s feeling much better.

Bennett learned a lot from substitute teaching for a year but looks forward to having her own classroom again, working with students every day, sharing her enthusiasm and saying “happy day” to absolutely everyone. “I still have the zest for teaching. I consider the critical teacher shortage my gain,” she said.

Bennett graduated from Holyoke High School in 1979, earned a bachelor’s from Kearney State College in 1983 and finished a master’s degree in curriculum at Adams State College in 2006.

Her 30 years of Holyoke teaching experience includes junior high math and physical education; sixth grade language arts; fourth, fifth and sixth grade math intervention/Title I; third grade language arts and social studies; and fourth grade reading, language arts, math and social studies.

She’s also been a curriculum director, assessment coordinator, athletic director, basketall and volleyball coach, and cheerleading sponsor.

Bennett’s parents, Gene and Carolyn Lutz, live in Cañon City, and her sister, Melodee Ellis, and husband Rod are in the Aurora area.

She enjoys collecting antiques, crafting, gardening and interior decorating and is a member of P.E.O. You’ll also see her keeping the scorebook and announcing for Dragon athletic events.

Cheri Bornhoft

Bornhoft is bringing 21 years of experience to special education at Holyoke Elementary.

She graduated from high school in Sterling and earned an associate degree from Northeastern Junior College, a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in early childhood special education from the University of Northern Colorado.

Bornhoft started her teaching career in Loveland as a kindergarten teacher. She taught two years as a sixth grade teacher in Sterling and eight years as a K-12 special education teacher in Fleming. She worked for 13 years at Northeast BOCES  as a speech teacher and an early childhood coordinator. She’s also been a substitute and a preschool teacher.

Bornhoft said Holyoke School District has a history of being a great place for employees, students and families. “I had visited Holyoke schools a few years ago during observations for S-CAP and was impressed with everything I saw going on in the classrooms and at that time felt like this would be a place I would enjoy working.”

She is looking forward to being a part of the Dragon family.

Her husband, Marty, works for the Phillips County road and bridge department. Daughter Jessie, age 18, will be attending the University of Wyoming, and son Jack, age 17, is a senior at Fleming High School. They live on a small farm outside of Haxtun and have an assortment of animals, including two dogs, a cat, chickens, ducks and pheasants.

Bornhoft enjoys traveling, yard work, reading, quilting, knitting, crocheting and many other crafts.

Bailey Chintala

Chintala worked at Holyoke Elementary as a paraprofessional in the spring of 2020, and she’s excited to be back, now as a first grade teacher, in large part due to the wonderful experience she had as a paraprofessional.

“Holyoke School District was very welcoming to me, and I could feel the family atmosphere that the district has. I feel that that is the type of place that I want to be a part of,” she said.

Chintala is looking forward to being in the classroom, meeting the students and watching the students grow not only in their academics but also as people.

She grew up in Fleming and graduated from Fleming High School in 2018. She earned an Associate of Arts degree from North Platte Community College in the fall of 2019.

Chintala played volleyball while at NPCC and continued playing after transferring to the University of Saint Mary. She is enrolled in The Partnership for Rural Educator Preparation program at Northeastern Junior College, which will allow her to finish her degree while working in the school district.

Chintala will be the Lady Dragons assistant junior high volleyball coach this year. She enjoys watching sporting events, including the team that her older sister coaches and the college team that her younger sister plays on. She also likes to stay active by playing volleyball and taking her dog on walks.

Jes-c French

This year, French is taking on a new role as a seventh grade social studies and world history teacher as well as drama director at the JR/SR high school.

French is a 2007 Holyoke High School graduate and a 2011 Amherst College graduate with a bachelor’s in psychology. She is currently attending Colorado State University Global for her master’s in teaching and learning with an English specialization.

Previous work experience includes high school English language arts and journalism in Haxtun for two years, a reporter at The Holyoke Enterprise for three years and residential staff at North Central Texas Academy, an international boarding school, for six years.

After growing up in Holyoke, French has spent time living in Massachusetts, Ireland and Texas. “I love the idea of HHS graduating people who are ready to go out anywhere into the world, for whatever length of time,” she said.

“I want to contribute to the school and community that shaped me in my youth, and I think that schools are really central to building a great town.”

French said she’s looking forward to really encouraging deep, critical thinking and helping students to practice historical thinking and not just rote memorization.

Her husband, Jimmy, teaches math and chemistry at Holyoke JR/SR High in addition to coaching high school baseball.

French attends First Christian Church, loves reading and serves on the Heginbotham Library board, loves everything theater related and serves on the Phillips County Players board, is a Holyoke Community Federal Credit Union board member, and enjoys photography and traveling.

Megan Sprague

Sprague, a new third grade teacher, said she is looking forward to getting to know her students, their families and her fellow teachers this year.

“I’ve been working as a substitute teacher in the Holyoke School District, and I have been so impressed with the leadership and the teachers. Also, the kids are so fun to be around!” she said.

Sprague grew up in Carbondale and graduated from Basalt High School and the University of Colorado-Boulder. She worked at Melissa Memorial Hospital from 2013-2020 as the ancillary director.

She is married to Dusty, and they have four children, Eady, age 9; Rory, 7; Hattie, 5; and Jairus, 3; as well as a Bluetick Coonhound named Rip. In her spare time, Sprague enjoys skiing, running, golfing, gardening and reading.

Flor Varela

They say, “Once a Dragon, always a Dragon,” and Varela is excited to be a Dragon once again.

She is a 2009 Holyoke High School alum. She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2013 with a bachelor’s in Spanish education with an endorsement in ESL and bilingual/bicultural education. Then in 2019, she earned a master’s of teaching a foreign language with an emphasis in teaching Spanish from UNC.

Before coming to Holyoke, she worked at Greeley Central High School for nine years as a Spanish teacher.

As an ESL and Spanish teacher in Holyoke, Varela is really looking forward to establishing a native Spanish speaker program so that students can improve their language skills and be able to use them in the future.

“Holyoke is a great place to live in. I had a good experience growing up here but felt that there was a need for representation, someone who went through the same experience as me and looked like me,” she said. “I want to be that for students. I want them to see me and feel that it’s possible for them to accomplish their goals no matter what they are.”

Coming back to Holyoke will also give Varela the chance to spend more time with her family, including her parents (Enrique and Maria Socorro Varela), her brother’s family (Jose, Karla, Carlo and Fernanda Varela) and her sister (Mariana Varela).

When she’s not teaching, Varela enjoys reading, arts, crafts and especially traveling. She tries to go to a new place at least once a year.