Schools in Montgomery County are set to return to session on Aug. 25 with a combined 24 new teachers.

The Montgomery County R-II district will have 16 new teachers through five buildings – Montgomery County High School, Montgomery County Middle School and Jonesburg and Montgomery City elementary schools. For the third year in a row, the Wellsville-Middletown R-I district will have eight new teachers.

The new R-II teachers had a three-day orientation on Aug. 12-14 at Montgomery County Middle School. There are seven new teachers at MCHS, three in MCMS, two each at JBE and MCE and one at the A.C.H.I.E.V.E. building.

Lilly Belanger, William Deering, Bryce Eoff, Benjamin Hays, Carrie Pratt, Abigail Thomas and Laura Whittington are the new MCHS teachers. Two of them – Deering and Eoff – graduated from MCHS in 2022.

The new MCMS teachers are Erin McAlpin, Megan Schneider and Jennifer Van Booven. Riley Banks – a 2022 W-M graduate – and Brenna Hambach will teach at JBE and Rhonda Hollenbeck and Aaliyah Paul will teach at MCE. Alex Aubuchon is the new teacher at the A.C.H.I.E.V.E. building.

Also, Grace Cooke is the new band teacher for MCHS and MCMS, replacing Lauren Seifried. She worked as band director at Belle High School the last three years.

Emma Angel, Hannah Finley, Natalie Green, Kari Jones, Leslie King, Jenny List, Kaitlin Nelson and Sarah Simmons make up the new teacher group at W-M. The teachers had an orientation on Aug. 14.

King taught at R-II the last 17 years before heading north to Wellsville. She will be teaching fifth grade.

Finley, who graduated from MCHS in 2023, will join King at the elementary school as she will be teaching first grade. Nelson and List will teach second and fourth grade, respectively. Jones is the new district social worker, Green will teach physical education at the elementary and junior high schools and Simmons is the process coordinator.