New teachers begin the school year at Flandreau

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Nancy Kelm

Nancy Kelm will begin teaching elementary school music this year at Flandreau. She previously taught elementary music in Austin, Minn. for one year and in Miller for three years.

She decided to become a teacher because of her love for music and children and is looking forward to sharing her love of music with the students.

“I recently decided to get back into teaching after being a stay-at-home mom for the last nine years,” Kelm said. “Fortunately, an elementary music position became available in Flandreau.”

Her husband Justin is the current fifth and sixth grade teacher at the school. They have three children: Clara, Owen and Molly.

Kelm is very active at their church where she leads a few musical group. She loves spending time with her family.

Rachel Dawson

Elementary education will be taught by Rachel Dawson. She and her husband Jacob got married in June and he will be working as an attorney in Madison.

They moved the Colman, making Flandreau a short drive and the opportunity for Dawson to continue teaching in special education.

After graduating in December 2014, she took a long-term substitute teaching position at Lifescape, teaching students with severe disabilities. The following year she served as a resource teacher with the Sioux Falls School District at Susan B. Anthony, where she worked the past two years.

“Ever since I was young, I’ve had a mother hen nature,” Dawson said. “I always enjoyed helping my younger brothers with school and decided being a teacher would help satisfy my desire to help others.”

She said she is most looking forward to seeing her students make progress and seeing them realize that progress.

Dawson like to spend time outdoors, biking, running, golfing and hanging out on the lake.

Kimberly DeKruif

Kimberly DeKruif will begin her career teaching first grade and assistant coaching volleyball in Flandreau.

She married her husband Brant at the beginning of August and the pair lives in Dell Rapids. DeKruif graduated from Garretson High School in 2013 and from the University of South Dakota in 2017 with a degree in elementary education.

“You can’t pursue any other profession without the help of an elementary teacher,” DeKruif said on why she became a teacher. “I am excited to change the world one classroom at a time.”

She said she came to Flandreau because it was a good place to start both her teaching and coaching careers while her husband finishes school.

She’s looking forward to be able to teach her students and coach her players every day without having a 45-minute commute, as she did when she student-taught at Viborg-Hurley.

In her free time, she plays guitar, reads and bikes.

Lauren McCafferty

The new second grade teacher and head volleyball coach at Flandreau is Lauren McCafferty.

She graduated from Northern State University in May with a degree in elementary education. Her dad is a high school English teacher and her mom is an eighth grade special education teacher.

“I decided to come to Flandreau because I wanted to move from the north part of South Dakota to the southern part,” McCafferty said. “The Flandreau school district is a perfect size to start out in and the staff was very friendly and welcoming.”

She student-taught in an urban fourth grade classroom and has experiences in both an urban sixth grade math class and a rural third grade classroom.

She has coached softball for the past eight years for kids aged 4-17 and has coached a 16-year-old volleyball team the past two springs.

“I believe all children are capable of achieving what they put their minds to,” McCafferty said. “I want to help them realize their talents and how much they are capable of.”

Julia Fargen

Julia Fargen will be the new third grade teacher at Flandreau Elementary this year.

She graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in early childhood education. Originally from Elkton, Fargen visited Flandreau often as a child because her grandmother lived in town.

She also played many basketball and volleyball games in town over the years, which helped in her decision to come to town to teach.

“During my visits, I came to enjoy the small-town atmosphere and welcoming school,” Fargen said. “It seemed like a natural fit for my first teaching job.”

Fargen graduated in May and has student-taught in Brookings as well as subbing in Elkton.

She said she became a teacher because she always enjoyed working with kids.

“When working in a classroom, you get a front-row seat to experience those moments when a student masters a new skill or learns something new,” Fargen said. “I love watching a student’s confidence grow throughout the school year.”

Spencer Yackley

Spener Yackley will begin teaching fourth grade this year as well as coaching junior high football and boys basketball and assistant coaching golf.

This will be his fifth year teaching and fourth teaching fourth grade. He earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a coaching certification from Mount Marty College.

Originally from Onida, Yackley graduated from Sully Buttes High School and decided to teach in Flandreau to have a positive impact on the students, his colleagues, the parents and community members.

Previously, he taught as a fourth grade teacher in Volga before moving to Minnesota working as a substitute teacher. For the past two years, he has worked as the fourth grade teacher at Woodbury Leadership Academy in Woodbury, Minn.

“I became a teacher so I could be a positive role model for kids and prepare my students to not only excel academically, but to excel as leaders in their communities,” Yackley said.

He said he is most looking forward to using more technology in his classroom and watching his students grow both academically and as leaders.

Outside of teaching, Yackley enjoys golfing, playing basketball, watching movies and spending time with his wife, Christina, and their four-year-old puppy Zoey.


Allison Ross

Allison Ross will be teach Title I at the middle school this year.

She grew up with a small family in southern California, and decided to come to Flandreau after student-teaching at the school in 2016 and loving every minute.

“I became a teacher because I love watching a kid learn something new,” Ross said. “The excitement they have is contagious.”

She said she is looking forward to the variety the position will offer.

Outside of teaching, Ross loves hiking and walking her dog. She and her fiance go hiking every summer in Colorado.

Joshua Edlund

The new physical education and health teacher at Flandreau will be Josh Edlund. He will also coach football.

Edlund knew geography teacher Owen Parsley, who got in touch once the P.E. job opened up.

“We arrived here and immediately felt at home,” Edlund said.

Originally from Crookston, Minn., he attended Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minn. where he obtained a degree in physical education.

He said he’s looking forward to learning from the kids and building relationships between students and other staff members.

“I had a lot of teachers and coaches make a positive influence in my life, and I wanted to have the opportunity to have a positive impact on other kids’ lives,” Edlund said.

He loves playing sports any chance he gets, from tennis to football to basketball. He also enjoys working on older vehicles, hanging out with his wife, Marquelle, and watching his little brother play football at Crown College.

Jamie Fryslie

Jamie Fryslie will be teaching ninth grade English and middle school and high school FACS classes in Flandreau this year.

She grew up in Sioux Falls and graduated from Lincoln High School before graduating with both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from South Dakota State.

Fryslie and her husband Jess have been married for five years. Because he recently got a job in the maintenance department at SDSU, she began looking for jobs in the area.

“I had heard really good things about the Flandreau school, particularly the teachers, and thought it sounded like a really great place to work,” Fryslie said.

While in grad school, she was a graduate teaching assistant teaching Comp 101 classes. She also subbed in Sioux Falls for awhile before teaching high school English in Willow Lake, where her husband is from, for three years.

During this time, she also started a book club that met over lunches and met over Skype with New York Times best-selling authors and went to movies.

“I decided to become a teacher because I love to learn,” Fryslie said. “Teaching is one of those professions that allows, and requires, you to continue taking classes throughout your career. I also wanted to try and spread that love of learning on to the next generation.”

She also said being an English teaching allows her to read and talk about books for a living, “which is about the coolest job I can think of.”

Fryslie has two young daughters with her husband, Juniper and Mira, and they are also raising her 17-year-old brother Jake, who will be a junior at Brookings High School this year.

While raising young kids takes up a lot of time, Fryslie said she reads a lot and loves to do pretty much anything outdoors.

Dan Hall

Dan Hall will begin teaching high school business and computers this year in Flandreau. He will also be part of the tech support team at the school.

Hall graduated from Dakota State University with degrees in business/computer education and accounting.

He grew up in Miller and said he came to Flandreau for the opportunity to start his career after student teaching here a few years ago and loving the school district.

“That is where my passion is,” Hall said of becoming a teacher. “I love working with kids and giving them the business and computer knowledge to further their lives with.”

He is a huge basketball and baseball fan and will be doing some coaching at Flandreau this year as well.

Lucinda O’Connell

Lucinda O’Connell will start as the speech language pathology assistant at Flandreau this year. She worked as a substitute for a teacher last spring and then was hired full time.

O’Connell lives in Brookings with her husband and three children, two enrolled in the Brookings School District and one at basic training in Ft. Benning, Calif.

She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and spent eight years substitute teaching for Brookings School Special Education. She also spent two years as the speech pathology assistant for Oldham-Ramona.

She said she is most looking forward to working with the students and enjoys quilting, reading and taking her kids to band or dance practice.

Jon Dilworth

This year Jon Dilworth will student-teach under shop and ag teacher Josh Christiansen. Currently, he’s attending South Dakota State for ag education.

He said he’s looking forward to meeting new people in the field and learning more about what it takes to be a teacher.

“I have always had a passion for agriculture, FFA, 4-H and educating people,” Dilworth said. “I can’t wait to be in the classroom with the students.”

He grew up in a small town called Goodhue, Minn. and said he decided to come to Flandreau because it is a small community like his hometown, and everyone is friendly.