Sherman Independent School District and the Sherman Chamber of Commerce came together Friday to welcome the newest class of educators to the community. The chamber hosted its 18th annual new teacher luncheon at Sherman High School and introduced the incoming educators to the community and what it has to offer.
Friday’s luncheon represented the culmination of a week of onboarding and training for the incoming teachers ahead of the start of the school year Aug. 14. The new teachers will be joined next week by the returning teachers who will begin final preparations for the school year.
“It is important because it is good to make our educators welcome in the community,” said Emelie Nelson, director of marketing and events for the Sherman Chamber. “They are going to be service and its a good way to kind of get their foot in the door to see that we have a very welcoming community and business community.”
The nearly 140 individuals who were being celebrated Friday came together with a myriad of backgrounds. They came to Sherman with backgrounds as amazon drivers, a published author, boxing coach, former chef and rodeo clown, among other backgrounds. However, the uniting factor was that they were all now Bearcats and educators.
“Its anywhere from teachers who have retired and want to get back into it to newbies fresh out of college,” Nelson said. “There is kind of a good mix of people this year.”
The incoming class of teachers was on par with previous years, if a little larger, Sherman ISD Interim Superintendent Thomas O’Neal said. Together, they brought to the table 813 combined years of experience, even if 41 were just stepping into the role of teacher for the first time.
“We know they are going to make a positive impact for our students and we are excited to have each one,” he said.
Among those in attendance Friday was Robby Ritchey, who previous taught and coached in Frisco. The opening at Sherman gave him the chance to get away from a larger district like Frisco while still moving forward with his career.
“There was an opportunity from a coaching perspective and then the class and stuff kind of fell in line, and I just really enjoyed the facilities and the people,” he said.
Ritchey was impressed by Sherman’s new facilities early on. While he knew of the improvements in the district, he was unaware of their scale.
Ritchey will be joined in the basketball program by Philip Manning, who will be teaching credit recovery while serving as the head boys basketball coach. Manning, who has taught for 12 years, said SISD gave him the opportunity to run and manage his own sports program.
“I am just excited for a new opportunity to have my own program,” he said.
For others, the upcoming school year represents a return home. Rene Wyatt will return to SISD after working with S&S CISD for the past two years.
Wyatt began working with SISD about six years ago when she moved to Texas from California. She started her work as a teaching aid working with special education students before moving on to be an inclusion teacher in the program.
For Wyatt, returning to SISD represented a return to a place she sees as a home to not only her but also her family.
“I just feel like Sherman is my home,” she said. “My two younger daughters are Sherman students … So, it just feels like it is home. it is a big family here, and so I love how we support our students, and I wanted to come back to that.”
