{"id":8031,"date":"2025-10-22T11:05:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/?p=8031"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:05:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:05:58","slug":"montoursville-welcomes-its-new-staff-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/montoursville-welcomes-its-new-staff-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Montoursville welcomes its new staff members"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26′ school year brought lots of new changes. New classes were introduced, new rules were enforced, and new teachers were hired to fill the spaces left by retirees or faculty that left to find new opportunities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Those new teachers, Mr. Brennan Warner who teaches physics and chemistry, Mrs. Jennifer Hopkins who teaches environmental and STEM, and Teacher Ella Rossman who teaches 11th grade English, are adjusting to the new environment and learning the ropes of a completely different district than the ones they taught at before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComparing it to [the school I previously taught at], I feel like it\u2019s definitely smaller and the demographic is a lot different,\u201d said Hopkins. \u201cThe behaviors have been a lot better and just a lot smoother.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Physics and chemistry teacher Mr. Brennan Warner stands in front of a chemistry poster. Warner is replacing retiree Mr. Ted Barbour and Miss Hannah Ostrander in the physics and chemistry department. Photo taken by Catherine Hittle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hopkins described the absence of disciplinary problems in her classes as \u201crelieving\u201d and that Montoursville is \u201cmuch more calm and relaxing\u201d than Milton was when she taught there. <\/span><\/p>\n

Warner, who\u00a0 had a substitute teaching job in Williamsport and taught at Jersey Shore while in college, has found some similarities and differences in the Montoursville community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA similarity [between Jersey Shore and Montoursville] is that they are both close knit communities,\u201d said Warner. \u201cEveryone supports each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Warner said that at Williamsport, one could \u201cjust get lost\u201d but that in Montoursville, \u201cyou can really get to know everyone\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rossman has had a similar experience with an encouraging student body and faculty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really love how supportive the teachers are of each other, not just the students,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cI love the teacher culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All three new faculty members said that all of the teachers were helping them to adjust.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Sweeney is my mentor teacher, and that has been wonderful,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cShe\u2019s always giving me tips and helping me out with resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopkins and Warner have also banded together with the teachers in the science department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Warner and I are always popping into each other\u2019s rooms and asking \u2018do you need anything?\u2019,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really close department.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Warner agreed that the science department faculty have been instrumental in adapting to his new position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The science department staff] have been great at helping me get adjusted and settled in,\u201d Warner said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as the faculty, Rossman said they are enjoying the students they get to teach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
11th grade English teacher Ella Rossman stands in front of the wall of art in their room. The art has been made and given to them by their students, most of them coming from junior Grant Gehr. Photo taken by Ryleigh McConnaughhay<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI am kind of not like any teacher many of these kids have ever had, because I use gender neutral pronouns,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cI think people don\u2019t give credit where credit is due for this kind of [rural] school\u2026[the students] are kind, understanding, and empathetic, and I think more people need to recognize that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the warm welcome from the students and faculty, there have been some difficulties with the new teaching positions as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my first time teaching physics,\u201d Warner said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a Lycoming College graduate, Warner studied and got a degree in chemistry, so while teaching chemistry in place of Miss Hannah Ostrander is his \u201cforte,\u201d he must also learn to teach a completely new subject.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I\u2019ve taken physics classes because of my more in-depth chemistry background,\u201d Warner said. \u201cIt makes a weird branch of science, but I\u2019ve had exposure to [physics] and so far [teaching physics] is going great.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Hopkins, the challenge was less about the subject and more about the time she had to prepare to teach her subjects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[I got the offer to teach at Montoursville] four days before I was supposed to be here,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cI think [the biggest challenge] has just been how fast everything happened and not having the summer to prepare.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The staff members have experienced their first weeks at Montoursville and it has set the stage for their upcoming year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a new teacher is kind of like being Spider Man,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cYou take hit after hit, but there\u2019s nothing else you\u2019d rather do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Featured Photo (At top): Environmental and STEM teacher Mrs. Jennifer Hopkins sits at her desk during her 9th period AP Environmental class. The class has been working on their new lab handout about primary productivity after completing the final portion of their experiment. Photo taken by Ryleigh McConnaughhay<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26′ school year brought lots of new changes. New classes were introduced, new rules were enforced, and new teachers were hired to fill the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":8032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montoursville.k12.pa.us\/thearrowhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}