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Pekin welcomes nine new teachers
PACKWOOD — Pekin Community School District is welcoming nine new teachers for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Several of the teachers are from the area, and a couple of them are Pekin High School graduates.
Here is your introduction to this year’s crop of new teachers at Pekin:
Leanna Denison
Elementary Special Ed.
One of the two Pekin grads among this year’s new teachers is Leanna Denison, who will teach elementary special education. Denison graduated from Pekin in 2001, and later from William Penn University in Oskaloosa. Not only is Denison familiar with Pekin as a student, she’s also worked there as an associate for four years.
“Coming back to Pekin has always been my goal,” she said. “I started college for teaching after I graduated high school, then life happened. When I became an associate, it prompted me to go back to school.”
Denison said she enjoys the one-on-one aspect of her job where she gets to meet with students individually and celebrate their progress together. In addition to her role as a special-education teacher, Denison also drives a bus for Pekin.
Denison has six children, one of whom just graduated high school, another who lives in Cedar Rapids, and four who live with her here. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her kids and reading.
Paige Ingle
6th Grade Math and Science
Locals may know her as Paige Oliver, a 2009 graduate of Pekin High School who married fellow Panther, Jeremy Ingle. Ingle attended William Penn University, and became a paraeducator at Pekin for about six years before she went back to school to finish her degree.
“Working as a paraeducator inclined me to do more with my education career,” she said.
Ingle said she enjoys teaching all subjects, and science is among her favorites.
“I love experimenting and all of the stuff that comes with it, letting kids use their imaginations,” she said.
Last school year, Ingle began the year as a paraeducator and then became a long-term substitute teacher in special education.
In her free time, Ingle enjoys spending time with her husband and two children going camping, kayaking and holding family movie nights.
“My family and I are really outdoorsy, so we like stuff like that,” she said.
James Lyman
High School Social Studies
Lyman graduated from Fairfield High School in 2018, and graduated from Iowa State University just a couple of months ago. He said it’s fun to rub shoulders with his former teachers who are now Pekin administrators, such as 7-12 Principal Shawn Dorman and Superintendent Derek Philips.
“Mr. Philips was right next door, and I had Mr. Dorman as a teacher,” he said. “I had a couple of other teachers here, too.”
Lyman said his interest in social studies began years ago, spending time watching The History Channel with his father.
“I fell in love with it pretty much instantly,” Lyman said.
Lyman will commute to Pekin from his residence in Fairfield, and said he’s glad to have found a job close to his family.
In his free time, Lyman likes to hunt, fish, play video games, watch movies and participate in athletic leagues at the rec center.
Raine Jones
High School Social Studies
Though Jones is a new teacher this year, she won’t join the staff until the second semester in January. Until then, she’ll be student teaching at Davis County and Sigourney school districts.
Jones is from Corydon, and grew up in a family of educators. Both of her parents are teachers, and her father was her high school social studies teacher.
“It was cool to see him do what he likes to do, and he fostered my love for history,” Jones said. “He really shaped my decision to become a history teacher.”
After graduating from Wayne High School, Jones attended Central College, and after COVID hit, she switched to studying online at Buena Vista University.
For entertainment, Jones likes to read, and said she just bought a Kindle so she can read e-books on the go.
Alison Godwin
1st Grade
Godwin grew up just down the road in Fairfield, where she graduated from Fairfield High School in 2019. She attended Hawkeye Community College and then finished her bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Iowa.
Godwin has had many opportunities to work with youth through coaching, and through her mother’s at-home day care. She’s always enjoyed helping kids learn, and discovered she had a calling for education.
“I love seeing kids when they have that ‘a-ha’ moment of figuring out something,” she said.
Godwin will commute to Pekin from her home in Libertyville, and she said she’s glad she can stay close to family.
“I feel that Pekin is a really good school to be at, and I wanted to come back to the area,” she said.
Outside of school, Godwin enjoys reading, shopping and playing volleyball, which she did in high school and with the UNI women’s club team.
Emily Morris
7th-8th Grade Math
Despite both of her parents teaching, Morris never thought she would end up in education. She is the daughter of Scott and Tricia Slechta, who used to teach at Fairfield High School, Scott as an English teacher and Tricia as a social studies teacher, teacher librarian and yearbook sponsor.
Morris went to school to become a dental hygienist, but she had to wait a couple of years for an opening in the dental school. While waiting, she began working as an associate at Fairfield Middle School. She got so much joy from it that she decided to switch careers, and went on to teach eighth-grade science at FMS for five years. This past summer, she took a few classes to get her math endorsement, too.
“I feel like math and science work well together,” she said. “You can’t have one without the other. It will be interesting to see how the science teacher and I can collaborate, since I have that background now. I think it will be easier to connect the math standards with the science content.”
She and her husband Jordan live outside Packwood with their four boys, the oldest of which is starting kindergarten this year.
Jessica Carlson
7th-12th Grade Band and Choir
Carlson grew up in the small town of Malden, Illinois, and graduated from Princeton High School in 2019.
She’s been interested in music from a young age, starting with piano lessons as a third-grader. She chose to study at the University of Northern Iowa for its prestigious music education program, and after graduation this past spring, she sought job opportunities in her newly adopted home of Iowa.
“I really liked what I’ve seen in my four years of college in the state,” she said.
Carlson is never far from the music scene, and in fact she likes to spend her free time performing music, too, such as in community bands and choirs.
Though her love of music stretches back many years, Carlson was originally interested in becoming a large animal veterinarian because she showed cattle in 4-H.
“I was heavily involved in 4-H in high school, but I branched out and found I had a more prominent love for music, and I decided I could make more of an impact in that area,” she said.
Brianna Porter
K-6th Elementary Counselor
Porter grew up in Oskaloosa, and attended Indian Hills Community College and then Buena Vista University. She most recently worked as the middle school counselor in Mt. Pleasant.
“I just really enjoyed working with at-risk youth, and I knew that that was my calling,” Porter said. “I’ve worked in a few youth homes, and sometimes the youth were there because of foster care, or because they had juvenile court involvement, or severe mental health concerns. I enjoyed that work, but it was intensive. To balance it out, where you can work with a little bit of both, school counseling was a great fit.”
Porter will be joined in her office by her therapy dog, Axel, a 2-year-old golden doodle.
“He is a certified therapy dog, and he’ll be here most days,” Porter said. “Therapy dogs are just like people in a sense because they can get overwhelmed. If there’s a day he needs a break, then he’ll get that break.”
In her free time, Porter enjoys spending time outdoors, exercising, arts and crafts, and spending time with her family.
Rose Pugh
Special Ed.
Pugh lives in Birmingham, Iowa, and considers Iowa her home base since she’s lived here the longest. She moved around a lot as a kid, and that experience helps her understand students who are going through their own tough times and who are struggling with being the new kid at school.
“I went to four different schools in sixth grade,” she said. “Two were in Colorado, one in Indiana and one in Florida. It was during some trying times in my family.”
Pugh is no stranger to Pekin, having taught middle school English at the school for six years before becoming a secondary special education teacher in Fairfield for 16 years. During her prior sting with Pekin, she was also in charge of the middle school’s speech team and plays.
Her desire to become a special education instructor began during those years as a middle school English teacher at Pekin, when she got to know a student who put so much effort into advancing out of special education.
“He wanted to be out of special education, and strove really hard to do that,” Pugh said. “That impressed me, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Outside of school hours, Pugh enjoys reading, camping and “being in the sun.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
