Welcoming New CHS Teachers

“If you’re a teacher, it’s always good to be a student,” said incoming CHS math teacher Spencer Hollenbach. This well defines his positive, engaged style of teaching. Hollenbach attended the University of Missouri and obtained an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA. Hollenbach spent several years working as an engineer with a heating company called Watlow before changing careers...

“Sometimes, students are nervous to speak a different language correctly. I want them to feel comfortable and I want them to feel like they can take intellectual risks in my classroom,” said Dorotea Lechkova. Dr. Lechkova plans to teach Spanish I and Honors Advanced Spanish II. Having immigrated to St. Louis from Bulgaria at a young age, she began to study Spanish in middle school and took Spanish...

When he was in first grade, Joe Milliano took his first ever tap dancing class. This hobby would later lead to some of his first experiences with teaching. “In the spring semester of my freshman year of college, I was teaching a high school level tap class. I was one year removed from the students that I was teaching,” he said. “I was bad at it. I didn’t know how to command a room and make...

Music has always been a presence in Sophie Browning’s life, but it wasn’t until middle school that she discovered her love of the clarinet. “With no great logic or reasoning, I was like, ‘Clarinet, that looks like a fun word.’ I’m going to play the clarinet.’” Over 10 years later, Browning’s passion for music is still evident: she has recently joined the Clayton Band Program as...

Noah Petti, incoming Band Director and Percussion Specialist, is a St. Louis native returning to teach students from both Wydown Middle School and Clayton School. Having been a student teacher at Clayton two years ago, Noah Petti is now ready to take on a new and exciting challenge teaching students here at Clayton. His journey as a musician, like many others, started in middle school (but in an unexpected...

“I’ve always had an innate desire for learning,” said new CHS English teacher Melissa Goodlett. “That’s off the bat, even when I was dealing with dyslexia.” Despite her family’s insistence and her passion for playing school with her siblings since the age of three, Goodlett didn’t always know that teaching would be her future. Early in her education, she struggled with an undiagnosed...

He returns! Curtis James, Clayton’s newest math teacher, taught at CHS from 1998 to 2008 and is returning this year after teaching at Triad High School in Illinois. James, having two sons who would graduate from Triad in 2020, made the decision to turn his 60-mile daily commute to just a six-minute commute from his home when his sons entered grade school. However, with his sons having graduated last...

Growing up, Dawn Weber never thought much about teaching. “I knew I wanted to do something with art, and something in the creative field,” said Weber. “I never really thought about teaching when I was a kid.” After graduating from high school at Ursuline Academy in St. Louis, Weber pursued a degree in fine arts and graphic design from Missouri State University. It wasn’t until about...

Anna Hormberg’s focus on the subject of history stirred well before she was a teenager. “It started for me when I was honestly in the fifth grade,” Hormberg said. “I was fascinated just of people’s different experiences in the past. History helped me have a better understanding of myself and the time and place that I lived in.” Hormberg also likes seeing the physical experience of the...

“I always loved art as a kid. I was always the kid drawing in my free time and I loved art class,” said Kamille Chavarin, one of the new art teachers at CHS. As a child, Chavarin was always very creative. Growing up in St. Louis, Chavarin spent countless days at the art museum and took art classes at COCA. She also grew up in a creative household. “My grandma was a seamstress, so she made...

Art inspiration can come from anything, anywhere, anytime. New Clayton High School art teacher Chad Harmon grew up watching his dad fiddle with his chess board while debating his next move against the Atari. Stationed in Germany, unable to speak foreign languages, Harmon’s father took to chess to entertain himself during his time off. Harmon was entranced by the five inch pieces and held to his...