The USD 447 faculty roster sees several new faces — and one familiar name — with the start of the 2008-09 school year on Thursday.
Among the new faculty members in USD 447:
• Shannan Mathes (pronounced MATH-is) is a special education instructor at Lincoln-Central Elementary School. The Altamont native and Labette County High School graduate previously taught music in Walker, Mo., and was most recently employed as a special education paraprofessional in the Labette County school district.
He is a graduate of Pittsburg State University. Shannan and his wife, Karrie, have two children: Lane, age 2, and Emma, age 7 months.
• Casey Lickteig is no stranger to Cherryvale, having been raised in the community and having graduated from Cherryvale High School in 2002. Lickteig will be a fifth-sixth grade teacher at Lincoln-Central Elementary School. A 2007 gradaute of Pittsburg State University, Lickteig spent the 2007-08 school year as a substitute teacher in USD 447.
Lickteig will also serve as an assistant high school football coach and help with the middle-high school wrestling program.
• Harry Hester also is a familiar figure in USD 447. Hester, who will teach eighth grade Kansas history and serve as a technology technician at Cherryvale Middle-High School, was a teacher and coach in USD 447 from 1999 to 2003. He spent the past four years as a teacher and head football coach at McLouth High School in McLouth, Kan.
The Caney native will also be the head high school football coach and summer weightroom coordinator.
Hester has a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Pittsburg State University.
He and his wife, Gina, are the parents of a son, Hunter, who is in the sixth grade. The Hesters also are expecting a child in November.
• Emily Shearhart, a native of Coffeyville, will teach first grade at Lincoln-Central Elementary School. Shearhart is a graduate of Coffeyville Community College and Newman University. To complete her bachelor’s degree, she worked as a student-teacher at Lincoln-Central in the 2007-08 school year.
• Philip Swindler is a chemistry and physical science instructor at Cherryvale Middle-High School. Swindler spent his childhood in various towns in Kansas, including Lebanon, Troy and McCracken, as his father was a Methodist pastor. Philip has two bachelor’s degrees from Kansas Wesleyan College in Salina, Kan., including one degree in education and another degree in chemistry.
Swindler also has post-graduate hours through Emporia State University, the University of Mobile, University of Colorado, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas.
Swindler most recently taught at Wichita Word of Life School for nine years. He previously taught in the Madison, Kan., school district and also was employed in the flour mill laboratory at Cereal Food Processors in Wichita.
