New teachers ready for PCS 2021-22 school year

The 2021-2022 school year kicks off today, Wednesday, August 18, and Perkins County Schools has a number of new teachers and staff ready to get to work.

The school added seven new teaching staff, a new head of maintenance and three paraprofessional educators for the upcoming school year.

Bethany Essink, Brandie Ross-Sando, Mikaela Stephensen, Jenny Battershaw, Rebecca Jones and Rich Borman have all joined the teaching staff at PCS.

Angela Dickey has also been hired as a Title I teacher, and will be helping elementary students with reading. 

Lance Talich is the new head of maintenance. Incoming paras are Tyler Faber, Teresa Faber and Christine Deaver.

Bethany Essink

Bethany Essink has joined Perkins County Schools as the new kindergarten, first and second grade special education teacher. She will also be the assistant one act coach for the Fall 2021 season.

Essink is a 2015 graduate of South Platte High School in Big Springs, Neb. and a 2020 graduate of Wayne State College in Wayne, Neb.

She spent last year student teaching and substituting at Perkins County Schools. She spent the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year working with Shelly Pollard and the second quarter with Jonette Kemling.

Essink decided to go into teaching as a career because she wanted to make an impact in students’ lives, and be someone who is there for them and shows them how they can succeed at anything if they work hard.

Because she was able to spend time working with PCS last school year, Essink gained enough experience with the staff and students to know she wanted to continue with the school.

She said she really likes the dynamic there is with the teachers, and how well the teachers and students work together.

“It’s a little bit of a family environment,” she added.

Another factor that drew Essink to PCS for a full-time teaching position was the size of classes.

Essink hopes to bring her positivity to Perkins County Schools, as she says she is a very smiley person. She wants to bring joy and brighten people’s days, especially kids who might be having a rough time.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the students again next week, and getting to work with them and alongside the teachers at the elementary school,” she said, adding that she is also excited to experience being the assistant director for the one act team.

“I also look forward to getting to meet all the parents, as well as all of the new students and families in town,” Essink said.

Brandie Ross-Sando

Brandie Ross-Sando will take her place as the new preschool teacher for three- and four-year-olds.

Ross-Sando is originally from Elsie, Neb. and graduated from Perkins County Schools in 2016. She then attended the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she graduated in May of this year with degrees in Early Childhood Education and Special Education K-12.

This will be Ross-Sando’s first year teaching, and she will also assume the role of the school’s assistant cheerleading coach.

“I am so thankful to be back home,” she said. “My husband Sean Sando and I really wanted to raise a family back here, and the perfect opportunity came about!”

Ross-Sando added that she and her husband love the community and enjoy living close to family.

“Having the opportunity to teach in the Perkins County School district was a dream come true,” she noted.

Ross-Sando is looking forward to the school year and making connections with the students and families in the community. She hopes to bring a positive impact to the school district during her time with PCS.

Mikaela Stephensen

The new fifth and sixth grade language arts and sixth grade reading teacher for Perkins County Schools is Mikaela Stephensen. She will also be this year’s assistant speech coach.

Stephensen was born and raised in Chadron, Neb., and after graduating high school she went to the University of South Dakota for a semester of nursing school, before realizing that wasn’t what she wanted to do with her career.

She still wanted to do something that would make an impact and help people, so she made the switch to education.

“I honestly wasn’t totally sure how I could help people other than nursing because I always had my heart set on the medical field,” Stephensen said. “Because none of my family was in the medical field, I wanted to do something different. I don’t really know what clicked or what changed.”

She realized she had a passion for writing and reading, and she was able to see people reflected and represented in literature and books. She said she wanted to make sure that all kids have that feeling of being represented in the classroom, where they can  feel heard.

She transferred to Chadron State College where she met her now husband Tristan Stephensen, the current 7-12 art teacher.

In July of 2018 the Stephensens moved to the area for teaching jobs and to be closer to family in Ogallala and Elsie. Stephensen taught language arts at Chase County Schools and Tristan started his position at PCS.

Stephensen is looking forward to building community in Perkins County and getting to know the town of Grant more.

“With being a Chase County teacher last year, I didn’t really get to embrace the full small town community,” she said. “We have felt very welcomed here, but I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to give back to all the people who have invested in us and gotten to know us.”

She is also excited to teach kids in the community and work alongside what she called “amazing staff” at PCS.

She is hoping to drive the love of reading and writing for students, especially in a world that Stephensen noted is “continually moving to the digital age.”

“We see so many things online, and it’s short pieces of communication, rather than what we used to see as traditional literature,” she said.

She feels sparking a love of reading and writing at a young age will help students form a solid literacy base so they can be more successful as they move on in life.

Stephensen thanks the community for welcoming Tristan and herself into the community, and for the support they have received in every endeavor.

Jenny Battershaw

Perkins County Schools has gained a new second grade teacher: Jenny Battershaw.

Battershaw grew up in Schuyler, Neb. and attended Central Community College in Columbus, Neb. She originally planned to become an agricultural teacher, but after taking a few classes realized that was not the career choice for her.

She then made the decision to follow her mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps and become an elementary teacher.

She transferred to UNK to obtain a degree in Elementary Education with endorsements in Early Childhood Unified and English as a Second Language.

Battershaw has substitute taught many grades, and her first teaching job was in Head Start at Indian Hill Elementary in Omaha, Neb. While there, she was accepted into the Early Childhood Masters program at Concordia University in Omaha.

Her husband, Travis, received a promotion to be co-manager of North Platte’s Walmart, so they moved and Battershaw became a Kids Club coordinator, para and Head Start teacher.

She then spent eight years at Bryan Elementary, a dual language school in Lexington, Neb.

Battershaw was brought to the area when her husband received a promotion to be the Ogallala Walmart’s store manager, and they recently moved with their four children, two bunnies and dog.

“I have always been around children growing up, whether it was watching my mom teach, teaching religious classes or baby sitting for local families,” she said. “It is in my blood since my mother and grandmother were teachers.”

Battershaw noted that she loves the small town feel of Perkins County, as she grew up in a small town and misses the atmosphere. She hopes to bring the very best of what she knows and has learned in life to her students.

“I can’t wait to be a part of this great community,” she said. “I am excited to meet everyone!”

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