Schools in Montgomery County are set to return to session on Aug. 19 with a combined 25 new teachers.

The Montgomery County R-II district will have 17 new teachers through three schools – Montgomery County High School, Montgomery County Middle School and Montgomery City Elementary. For the second year in a row, the Wellsville-Middletown R-I district will have eight new teachers.

The new R-II teachers had a two-day orientation on Aug. 6-7 at Montgomery County Middle School. There are five new teachers each at MCE and MCHS and seven at MCMS.

Heaven-Leigh Dempsey, Marina Hullings, Ginney Ison, Michael Kloeppel and Morgan Moore are the new MCE teachers. The new MCMS teachers are Jill Ashley, Kirsten Haller, Rylee Leslie, Corey Orr, Jenna Galkowski, Ryan Nowlan and Nash Miller. Jillian Goetz, Andrea Gentry, Austin Keith, Emily Mosby and Joseph Merrick are the new high school teachers.

The new R-I teachers had an orientation on Aug. 8. There are three new high school teachers, two new junior high school teachers and two new elementary school teachers. There is also a new teacher that will work in both junior high and high schools.

Jeania Burton, Skylar Durham, Brooke Hecker, Layton Maskey, Michelle Maskey, Jamie Schroer, Jami Williams and Sadie Yelton make up the new teacher group at W-M.

Two of them, Yelton and Layton Maskey, graduated from the high school in 2021. Yelton will teach junior high science and Layton Maskey will teach high school business.

Burton, who is another W-M graduate, returns to the education field after retiring as MCE principal just three years ago. She will teach second grade at the elementary school.

Durham and Schroer join the W-M teaching staff after working at the R-II district a year ago. Durham, who coached cross country and track at MCMS, will teach junior high school studies. Schroer, who served the last two years as basketball cheerleading coach at MCHS, will teach special education at the junior high and high schools.

Michelle Maskey will teach elementary special education, Hecker will work as a high school math teacher and Williams is the new high school English teacher.

Durham is the new W-M head cross country coach, replacing John Slovensky, who stepped down as coach after the 2024-25 season.

“There are some big shoes to fill. I’m really excited, though,” Durham said. “It’s going to be a great opportunity. I’m hoping for some good numbers. I hope to get a good turnout with the kids and get to work and really make a push for a good year and hopefully have a good postseason as well. The goal is to just continue building what Coach Slovensky had and keep continuing with the success that he had.”

The R-II school district will hold open houses for all four of its schools on Wednesday and Thursday. The middle and high schools will have their open houses on Wednesday. Open houses will be held at Jonesburg and Montgomery City elementary schools on Thursday.

The R-I school district will have its open house on Wednesday.