As students prepare to return to classrooms this fall, the Meeker School District is welcoming several new teachers, each bringing a different background, experience and perspective.

At Meeker Elementary School, Elly Krueger has returned to her hometown to teach music and art, while Liane Nielsen is beginning her first year as a third-grade teacher. Barone Middle School welcomes Claudia Stevens as a math teacher, and Ryan Beauvais is joining the English department at Meeker High School.

Superintendent Chris Selle said the district was fortunate to have strong candidates for its openings.

“We are excited to add these talented educators to our instructional staff,” Selle said. “While many other school districts struggle to fill all of their positions, we are fortunate that we had wonderful options to fill our vacancies for the 2026-27 school year.”

He said the new teachers will bring perspectives and experiences that will benefit students for years to come.

For Krueger, the new job is also a homecoming.

“Meeker is my hometown and I’m so glad to be back, close to family and nature, and teaching two of my favorite subjects,” she said.

Krueger brings 11 years of teaching experience in Germany to the role and also speaks German. Her goal in the classroom is to help students recognize their own creative abilities.

“Every person is a musician, every person is an artist, and we are all built to do difficult, meaningful things!” Krueger said.

She enjoys teaching music and art because they allow her to engage students in what she called “the most beautiful and joyful of human endeavors.”

“People make the place and we’re already off to a great start!” she said.

Nielsen also has deep ties to Meeker. Her father’s family is from the area, and she spent summers, vacations and holidays here throughout her childhood. A few years ago, she moved to Meeker permanently after taking a job with the Department of Human Services.

Nielsen’s mother is a teacher, and Nielsen said she loved spending time in her classroom growing up. She has also spent much of her career working with children through social work and as a paraprofessional.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach third grade!” Nielsen said.

She said third grade is a particularly fun age because students are becoming more mature and developing their own personalities while still hanging on to their enthusiasm and silliness.

“I want to create a classroom where students feel cared for and valued, not just by me as their teacher but also by their classmates,” Nielsen said.

Writing is her favorite subject to teach because it gives students an opportunity to express themselves, be creative and build confidence in their own ideas.

Students may also be surprised to learn their favorite preschool teacher, Ms. Shelly, is Nielsen’s mother-in-law.

As a first-year teacher, Nielsen said she expects to be learning right alongside her students.

“I am most looking forward to growing alongside my students,” she said. “This is my first year teaching, so I know I will have so much to learn, and I am excited that I will get to do that as my students are doing the same thing!”

At Barone Middle School, Stevens found her way to Meeker through a job fair. She visited the community, quickly fell in love with the town and decided it was where she wanted to teach.

Stevens grew up in a town even smaller than Meeker, so the small-town atmosphere feels familiar. She has also always enjoyed both math and teaching, making math education a natural fit.

One of the biggest misconceptions students have about math, Stevens said, is that some people simply are not “math people.”

While math may come more easily to some students than others, she believes it is a skill everyone can improve through practice.

“I don’t believe in some person having this special math touch, but rather math is a skill that we all need to practice to become better at,” Stevens said.

One of her favorite parts of teaching is watching a student finally understand a concept they have struggled with. She also tries to connect math to everyday situations. When teaching negative numbers, for example, she has students imagine spending money and watching it come out of a bank account.

Stevens will also have a four-legged companion in the classroom. Her service dog, Kato, will join her and, she said, is just as excited to meet the students.

“I hope to show them math is not as scary as some of them may think,” she said.

At Meeker High School, Beauvais is joining the English department after his family began looking for a new place to call home following the birth of their first child in 2021.

The family was living in South Park at the time, but Beauvais said the area felt too isolated for raising a child. Meeker checked the boxes they were looking for, including playgrounds, the recreation center, library, community, mountains, hospital, housing and schools.

“This town has a lot to offer for its size!” Beauvais said.

His path to becoming an English teacher took an unexpected turn in high school. He had always enjoyed math, but after taking AP calculus, he decided to pursue its opposite.

“Up until then, I always loved math, but when math stopped being intuitive, I decided I would love its opposite,” Beauvais said.

He enjoys teaching high school students because they are ready to wrestle with many of the same ideas he continues to think about himself.

One book that influenced him is H.G. Wells’ *Kipps*, about a man who inherits a fortune and moves from poverty to wealth but struggles to fit into wealthy society. Beauvais said he related to the character’s social awkwardness as he navigates different settings and questions of identity.

With students surrounded by an overwhelming amount of information, Beauvais said it is increasingly important for them to distinguish reliable information from unreliable information and thoughtfully process what they encounter.

“Students need to be thoughtful processors of the overwhelming amount of information coming their way,” Beauvais said. “This is something I am always trying to figure out for myself as well!”

Despite becoming an English teacher, Beauvais said his favorite subject in high school was physical education. His school had between 4,000 and 5,000 students and offered plenty of P.E. electives, and he said he probably took them all.

His students may also be surprised to learn he has lived on four continents.

From Germany to South Park, from childhood summers in Meeker to a job fair that sparked a new opportunity, each teacher took a different path to the district. Now, those paths have converged in Meeker classrooms, where the district’s newest educators are ready to teach, learn and grow alongside their students.

(Left) Meeker Elementary School teachers Liane Nielsen and Elly Krueger are new teachers starting this school year.

(Middle) Ryan Beauvais will join Meeker High School faculty this year to teach English.

(Right) Claudia Stevens, Barone Middle School’s new math teacher, stands with her service dog, Kato. JARED HENDERSON PHOTOS