De Soto is welcoming a wave of fresh talent as new staff members who introduce unique expertise and energy into the building
Lainee Graham is the new counselor for students with last names starting with L-Q.
“Starting my career in USD 232 felt like ‘coming home,’ in a sense. It’s a privilege to give back to my community in the same way others gave to me years ago,” Graham said.
Graham has always wanted to help serve others, both in psychology and education, so she thought being a counselor would “be the best of both worlds.”
Stephen Hudson, who has been the assistant tennis coach for DHS for years, has become a new behavior specialist para this year.
“I was a teacher before I was a para, and so this keeps me working with students, which is what I like to do, and hopefully one day I can be a teacher here as well,” Hudson said.
Hudson graduated from De Soto and has children in the district. He said that he loves the community and that he would not want to be anywhere else.
Reagan Lathem is the new chemistry teacher, and though she is not originally from the district, she is excited to be in De Soto.
“I had heard that it was a really supportive district with an incredible community behind it,” Lathem said.
Lathem originally went to school to become a pharmacist but she ended up switching to education her second year of college.
Similarly to Lathem, the new shop teacher, Christopher Shannon, did not always want to be a teacher.
“I had only considered doing it in the last 10 years. I taught software engineering to new college-hires at a corporation I worked at previously, but I didn’t really think about teaching high school… Really what got me interested was the idea that I could share all of the knowledge I have attained over the years with students that will take it and make something new with it,” Shannon said.
Claire Neuberger, the new Integrated Math 2 and IM2 Support teacher, is getting involved and settling in well from her move from Wisconsin.
“So far I feel that I have a great group of students, and I am honestly just excited to help them learn some Geometry! I am also coaching volleyball here which has been a fun highlight to my year,” Neuberger said.
Not only is Neuberger coaching volleyball, but so is the new English 11 and AP seminar teacher, Ryan Friend.
“Students are what makes this job fun, and so far, I think we have some of the very best! I’m also looking forward to coaching Volleyball and Softball,” Friend said.
Harrison Smith, who teaches honors and on level English for 10th graders is also excited for his time at De Soto, a place he had always just driven past on his way to Lawrence.
“[I look forward to] building relationships with students and seeing them grow into adults at some point, and getting to know the staff. I still haven’t met probably more than half of the staff, but I’m just trying to see everything they have to offer here,” Smith said.
