YODER – The 2024-2025 school year is looking exciting for Southeast schools. New staff have been introduced, a grant was given to implement a new program to benefits students, and the school’s principal, Tim Williams, is looking forward to seeing test scores.

Williams shared the new staff members and their positions in the school.

“We have Todd and Noni Weber. Todd is our new woods teacher and Noni is our new English teacher. We have Mr. Peter Drewniany, and he is a new math teacher. We have Shane Buchholz, he is our new ag teacher. We have Clayton McSpadden and he is our new dean of students, athletic director, and then he also teaches a couple of PE classes. And then we have Jade Reinhardt, and she is a half time social studies teacher, half time reading interventionist. That is new to us this year.”

Williams is very happy to have all these amazing new staff members this year, he cannot wait to see them work with the kids. 

Next, Williams shared how the district got a grant to pay for a new program called Leader in Me. They are working on training the district in this program in order to teach the kids valuable life skills. The program Leader in Me is based on the seven habits of highly effective people by Franklin Covey. 

Williams described the program to the Telegram.

“They’ve adapted it for teens, all the way down through kindergarten. It is a K-12 thing that we can do. You develop leadership, teams, and all that kind of stuff that goes along with it. Being proactive is the first one, beginning with the end in mind, so goal setting, putting first things first, so when you look at your schedule for the week, what are the things I have to get done, what are my big I absolutely have to get done, what are some things I can do later,” Williams explained. 

Williams didn’t want to go too much into detail, but he speaks very highly of the program and thinks it will be very beneficial for the students in our school district.

Williams shared how they are unable to release student WYTOPP scores at the moment, however, he is very excited about the data they have received about the students.

“We’re off to a good start for the year and I think things are going well,” Williams shared. 

His priority is getting the students to work on “real life situations” and he believes his staff members are doing that. He is very excited to see the success of his students this year.