Teacher Features

Ms. Erin Warren, a social studies teacher at Mead High School, started teaching about 26 years ago. Ms. Warren was born in Orlando, Florida. She graduated high school at Winter Haven High School. While she was in Florida, Warren received her bachelor's degree from the University of North Florida. After teaching at Lake Gibson Middle School (in Lakeland, Florida) hurricanes Charlie, Francis, and Jean t...

Ms. Carolyn Cottrill is a new teacher at Mead High School this year. She teaches science courses. She was offered the job last spring and interviewed with some of her now colleagues, Ms. Shannon Krack, as well as with Assistant Principal Mr. Alain Valette.  Cottrill said, “They were really awesome, friendly, and welcoming… There’s a lot of community between the teachers and the administrators...

Ms. Madeleine Tyma is a new teacher at Mead High. She teaches English 10, English 12, and AP Language and Composition. Tyma got her degree from Regis University and studied psychology and women and gender studies before switching to teaching. Tyma first knew she wanted to be an English teacher after realizing her love for books. She admits she was the “weird” kid in high school who loved reading...

Ms. Katie Kutz is a new teacher at Mead High who teaches art classes. While she is new to the school, she is not new to SVVSD. In fact, she is a St. Vrain Valley District graduate — she attended Frederick High and graduated in 2014. Growing up, she lived in Firestone, Colorado and has many fond memories. Some of her favorite moments involved walking around with her friends and exploring different...

Mr. Borja is Mead’s newest band teacher and the mastermind behind the Jazz & Dine show earlier this semester. Borja has a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a Master’s in Conducting, both from Colorado University in Boulder.  Before coming to MHS, Borja worked at Murphy Middle School, a little ways south of Dallas, Texas. This will be his fourth year teaching. Borja grew up in Texas...

Alex Garcia is a history and philosophy teacher at Mead. He received his undergraduate degree in finance and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in OshKosh. He earned his graduate degree in history at CU Boulder afterwards. Like most students today, Garcia confesses he did not know what to study when he went into college. “I grew up in an area that really emphasized doing something practical so ...

Ms. Laura Sanchez is the new attendance clerk at Mead High School. She has been working here for a month after Ms. Salaz, the previous attendance clerk, took over the role of athletic secretary. Sanchez is a Longmont native and attended high school at Skyline. After arriving at MHS, she says she was excited by the amount of Mav pride students exhibit. During her high school years she enjoyed go...

Ms. Vaca-Tricerri— more commonly known as Ms. Rafi— started teaching Biology and Chemistry last year. Originally born in Ecuador, Ms. Rafi moved to the States when she was four, then settled with her family in Charlotte, North Carolina. She went on to study at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she got her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Education with a minors...

Mrs. Rikelle Berry is a talented person with a big heart. She loves her students and treats them with kindness.  Mrs. Berry went to Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. She studied music education and music performance. Although she loves teaching music, she would have taught history if she had not been able to teach music. She was in choir a lot as a kid and decided that she really enj...

Mrs. Nichole Rue is an English teacher currently teaching General English 10, AP Seminar, and E-Credit here at Mead High School. She’s been teaching for a total of nine years, all of which have been at MHS, as well as additional previous student teaching time at Frederick High School. We’ve been lucky enough to have her witnessing the incoming of freshmen and the graduation of seniors since the...

Mrs. Katie Saenz is a Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) teacher here at Mead High. She’s been teaching for 15 total years, 12 of which have been at MHS, and she's been helping Mead students learn life skills since the school opened in 2009. Mrs. Saenz previously taught Career Pathways and currently teaches Culinary Nutrition, Food Science 2, Relationships, Living On Your Own, and Parent Child De...

Mrs. Hedlun teaches English 9 as well as English 11 and is the Journalism adviser at Mead High School. She’s taught for seven years: two years at Aurora Central High School and five years at MHS.  But why be a teacher? Mrs. Hedlun knew she wanted to teach late in high school. “I really struggled as an eighth and ninth grader. I made some really poor decisions, and time and time again, i...

Alex Garcia teaches U.S. Government, U.S. History Honors, Psychology, and AP European History at Mead High. Mr. Garcia has been described as “super down to earth” and “extremely understanding”. The way his old students would describe him is nerdy and quiet.   Mr. Garcia said, “It was learning my family’s history that inspired me to learn more about history, honestly.”  His fa...

If there’s any teacher you can joke around with while also learning how the world works, it’s government teacher, Mrs. Erin Warren. Mrs. Warren’s childhood home was surrounded by orange groves that her father owned and cared for. She would receive “hand-me-down” shoes from her friends because she could not afford them. “I could afford regular shoes but not the newest, greatest sho...

If there ever was a teacher you wanted to be best friends with, it’s probably Mr. Andrew Steitz. Mr. Steitz is a social studies teacher and you can find his room in the D-wing. If you don’t know him you might see him as just a history teacher, but there is a little background about him that proves this is not true. Before Mr. Steitz started teaching, he went to UNC. He studied history and ha...

Mr. Jonathan McHugh is an art teacher at MHS. He teaches beginning ceramics, beginning painting, and advanced ceramics. When he started teaching beginning sculpture, so many people had signed up to take the course that he ran out of class space to teach it. Mr. McHugh became interested in art at a very young age, which inspired him to become the teacher he is at Mead today. “I was too tiny to ...

Mrs. Leigh Ann Emberg is a math teacher at MHS. She teaches Algebra 1 and PreCalculus. Everyone who has had Mrs. Emberg as a teacher would agree that she is an understanding, incredible teacher. When asked to describe herself in three words, she replied with “understanding”, “quiet”, and “optimistic”. Emberg graduated from the University of Alabama with an undergraduate degree in math. S...