Hills-Beaver Creek Public Schools will welcome seven new teachers and three new paraprofessionals when the 2021-22 school year begins Tuesday.
Lydia Hildebrandt will be in the sixth-grade classroom when the 2021-22 school year begins at H-BC Elementary in Beaver Creek on Tuesday.
The Mountain Lake native attended Bethany Lutheran College, graduating in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and 5-8 grade endorsement in social studies.
“I look forward most to teaching Minnesota history, as it is my dream subject to teach after taking the class myself as a sixth-grader,” she shared in the Patriot newsletter. “We even have the same book that I learned from.”
Hildebrandt comes to H-BC after teaching first grade for one year in Park Rapids and second grade last school year in Round Lake-Brewster.
Hildebrandt and her fiancé, Jason Scruggs, live in Luverne, where he works for the Luverne Post Office. The couple is planning an October wedding.
Erika Bierman will teach K-12 vocal music and comes to the H-BC district from Pipestone Area Schools, where she taught fifth- and sixth-grade band and general music. She also worked in Adrian and Round Lake-Brewster school district.
She said she is most looking forward in this school year to “getting to know students and staff and making some great music.”
Bierman grew up in Mankato and attended Concordia College in Moorhead, graduating in 2007 with a music education degree. She also has a K-12 English Language Learning teaching license.
She lives in Luverne with her husband, Reece, and their children Charlotte, a fourth-grader, and Claire, a kindergartner.
Kerri Baker (nee Fransman) returns to her home school district as the grades 9-12 math teacher. Baker graduated from H-BC in 2007.
“Meeting the students” is what Baker is looking forward to the most as she enters her ninth year of teaching. She previously taught in Luverne for seven years (where she also student taught) and one year each in Dell Rapids and Adrian.
She graduated from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall with a degree in secondary education with a focus on mathematics.
Currently living in Beaver Creek, Baker is married to Robert, and the couple has three children, Maddox (second grade), Kaelyn (kindergarten) and Blakely, age 2.
Heather Erickson continues at H-BC secondary, this time teaching social studies and eighth-grade Family and Consumer Science.
She will also split her time as a paraprofessional.
Erickson previously worked as a paraprofessional, substitute teacher, after-school program coordinator and parent educator for the early childhood program.
“H-BC has been a welcoming, family environment for me over the years and provided my family with amazing support and love during and after my (late) son, Ethan’s, battle with Burkit’s Lymphoma,” she shared in the school’s newsletter. “I look forward to building new relationships and to pay forward the kindness and support shown to me back to others within our district.”
Erickson completed teaching education core classes at South Dakota State University in Brookings. She worked with the Rock County Farm Service Agency in Luverne and at Security Savings Bank in Luverne before returning to full-time substitute teaching last school year.
With her husband, Aaron, she has a son, Calvin, who is a freshman at SDSU and a daughter, Mya, an eighth-grader.
Max Wolgen begins his teaching career as the high school science teacher.
“I am mostly looking forward to building lasting and impressionable relationships with students,” he said. “I’m excited to make this a great year.”
Wolgen grew up in Sioux Center, Iowa, and graduated from Maurice-Orange City-Floyd Valley High School in 2017.
He attended Dordt University in Sioux Center, majoring in secondary education in biology and earth sciences.
Wolgen completed his student teaching in Sioux Center Middle School and Western Christian High School. He was a long-term substitute teacher at Unity Christian High School.
He and his wife, Jade, live in Sioux Center.
Graham Sudenga is the new Spanish teacher at H-BC Secondary.
He studied history and Spanish at the University of Minnesota from 2015 to 2019. His hometown is Sioux Falls.
“I am excited to join the community at Hills-Beaver Creek,” he shared in the district newsletter.
Danielle Kneip will teach second grade at H-BC Elementary. She previously taught at Adrian Elementary and was a substitute teacher in Luverne.
Kneip graduated from Luverne in 2015 and attended Southwest Minnesota State University. She received a degree in elementary education with a coaching certification.
“I am most looking forward to getting to know the community and students,” said Kneip, who makes her home in Luverne.
Joining the H-BC School District as paraprofessionals are Tedra Voss, Julie Shamatt and Nicole Morey.
Voss will also be the district’s coordinator for the new after-school enrichment program.