Entering the 2022-2023 school year, we had a few of the SES staff members leave us, and some welcome us. The staff members that decided to leave us last year left the year on good terms with a retirement party that many students attended. Most of our retired staff members were with us for at least 30+ years, and they all treated us well. Mrs. Judy Hall, who some say was the best bus driver ever, was with us the longest for a total of 41 years. Mrs. McClure was the next in line with 30 years of teaching at Southeast of Saline. She first taught from 1980-1988 and came back in 2000, teaching for another 22 years from 2000 to 2022. The following people, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Winters both worked from 1987-2022, which adds up to 35 years at SES. Following both Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Winters is Mrs. Mueller, the food service director, with a total of 29 years from 1993 to the end of the 2022 school year. Our last retired staff member is Mrs. Streit with a total of 17 years at Southeast of Saline taking place from 2005 to 2022. 

With the 2022 school year beginning, we have 4 new staff members and one staff member that moved up into a different position. One of the new positions we needed was Assistant Principal/Athletic Director and we hired Mr. Doug Minneman. He was employed at Marysville High School for 8 years before hearing about the open position at Southeast of Saline. He heard about the opening by looking online at job openings, but he also had other Athletic Directors reach out and tell him Southeast is a great place to be at. Mr. Minneman has a son that is enrolled at Southeast as a sophomore, and he was lucky enough to get to know the students ahead of time during summer weights. Mr. Minneman said, “I like it here, the people and the students are very welcoming!” 

Mrs. Brooke Lacy is our new nurse in the main office. She is a graduate from Southeast and earned her Bachelor’s Degree through Kansas State University. She wanted to be a clothing store supplier, but ended up spending time with her aunt in the hospital, where she decided she wanted to become a nurse. Her nursing career began in 2007, and has continued since. Mrs. Lacy started in the Labor and Delivery Department in Salina. Later, she decided to shift over to Salina Pediatric Care until she moved to be the Foreign Travel and Immunization Nurse at the Salina County Health Dept. She found the school nurse position while scrolling through Facebook. Brooke and Mitchel, her husband, have two girls at Southeast. Paige, their oldest daughter, is in 6th grade, and Taelyn, the youngest, is in 2nd grade. Mrs. Lacy said, “I absolutely love it here at SES! Caring for the kids and young adults has been great. The staff is pretty great too! I’m excited to be a part of the SES family!” 

We welcomed two new math teachers, one of which had student-taught for Mr. Sauber during the last semester of the 2021-2022 school year. Mrs. Becker is Southeast’s new high school Geometry and Algebra 2 teacher. Mrs. Becker was placed in different secondary schools in the Salina area and was assigned to Southeast for the final semester of her undergraduate program. She completed her student teaching in the fall of 2021 when people knew her as Ms. Morris. She applied for the secondary math position and was accepted. Mrs. Becker has only lived in Salina during her college years. She and her husband have made Salina their forever home and look forward to spending lots of time in the area. Mrs. Bradley is our newest junior high math teacher. This will be her 16th year in teaching. Her first six years were spent at Bennington, followed by six more years at South Middle School in Salina, and another three years teaching in Conifer, Colorado. All of her experience has been spent teaching junior high and high school math. She took a year off from teaching but started substitute teaching at Southeast last year because she has three daughters in grade school. She knew she wanted to start teaching again after subbing here at SES because of the great experiences and how welcoming other staff members were. 

Finally, Mrs. Kristy Foster has been employed with Southeast of Saline since 2018 in the kitchen, but recently moved into the food secretary position earlier this year. Mrs. Foster has two children that go to Southeast, Jacob is a freshman in high school and Katelyn is in 7th grade. Mrs. Foster chose to work on the same schedule as her children so that she would be able to help them to and from school since they are all in the Salina area.