Greetings to our Raptor families,
I hope that all of you are enjoying your summer be it work, study, or play. Here at Silver Creek we are busily preparing for the 2017-2018 school year and building upon the many successes that we have achieved. My purpose in writing you is to introduce our new hires for the coming school year.
An earlier communication was sent out introducing Kyle Schuyler as our new Athletic Director and Assistant Principal. Mr. Schulyer has most recently served the community of Lyons as their Assistant Principal. He has a rich history of teaching social studies, a background in musical performance and serving as a head coach in baseball and softball. Yvonne Elder will be joining our team as the Athletics Administrative Assistant. Ms. Elder has previously served the Silver Creek Community as a volunteer within our library and front office. She has tremendous experience in helping to launch the startup STM Laptop Bags and will provide a high level of customer service within our athletics programs.
Our new Special Education teacher working within our High Functioning Autism Program is Samantha Smith. Ms. Smith joins us after having graduated from Michigan State University. She has previously served as a camp counselor and coordinator, working with children and adults requiring exceptional services. Ms. Smith has also worked within the greater Rochester, Michigan schools as a student teacher.
Our Spanish Department welcomes Daniela Popich. Ms. Popich has been teaching for 19 years and has experience working in bilingual schools, elementary education, secondary education, and has served as a professor at Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a native speaker of Spanish and extensive experience in teaching she will share teaching responsibilities between Silver Creek and Frederick High Schools.
This year we add an additional .5 teacher within our instrumental music program. We welcome Edward Wellman III. Mr. Wellman is a product of St. Vrain schools and has most recently completed both his undergraduate and master’s degrees at University of Northern Colorado. Mr. Wellman will be assisting with marching band, jazz band and teaching music technology.
In Business Education we welcome Kirsten Viera. Ms. Viera is either currently or has owned and operated her own businesses in early childhood education, educational summer camps, CPR/First Aid, and started the first clean and organic restaurant of Boulder County called Karma Cuisine. Ms. Viera holds a bachelor’s degree in Business and a master’s degree in Educational Psychology. Ms. Viera will be teaching Marketing, Introduction to Business and Applied Money Management.
We are currently working to secure visas for our incoming Chinese Teacher Mr. Ji (Jack) Liu. The process for becoming a Chinese teacher in St. Vrain is incredibly competitive as hundreds of potential applicants are screened by the Hanban (Chinese Educational Department) before interviewing with us via Skype. Mr. Liu is an English teacher at his home school. We look forward to finalizing plans for his arrival in early August.
On the coaching front we welcome back Mr. Barry Litt moving from Junior Varsity to Varsity Head Coach. Mr. Litt works within our community as an electrical engineer and program manager. He has worked as an assistant within our girl’s basketball program since 2014. Mr. Litt has served our Longmont community in the capacity of coaching youth sports in football and basketball for many years. Mr. Litt will be in contact with team members to provide summer workout opportunities and fall workout opportunities.
Taking the helm of Boy’s Tennis is David Henderson III. Mr. Henderson works within our community as private tennis instructor and home remodeler. He has studied the game of tennis at the IMG Academy (formerly Bolletieri Tennis Academy) and has competed at a very high level. Mr. Henderson looks to instill the tenets of being mentally and physically prepared amongst his players.
We look forward to making 2017-2018 our best year yet and this has already begun with many of our existing teachers conducting or participating in professional development such as Advanced Placement Spanish, Advanced Placement Seminar and Research, Naviance, Boulder County Latino History Project, Camp iPad, InnEdCo and many more. We also prepare to undertake the expansion of Silver Creek in the coming year, with the addition of 7 classrooms to be completed by August 2018. As we welcome our new teachers, we also welcome new students, and the class of 2021! Enjoy your summer and I look forward to seeing all of you in August.
My best to you and your families,
Erick Finnestead
Principal, Silver Creek High School