Small Town News

Medical Lake adds two teachers, speech specialist and assistant secretary for 2009-2010

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School started a week early for some in the Medical Lake School district.

No, it wasn't students in need of more instruction, but rather new staff that were on hand for a briefing last Wednesday from a variety of district administrators.

The group included two high school teachers, Adam Inman and Lyle Powell, speech specialist Christin Knech-tges, and the new assistant secretary at MLHS, Patti Evans.

For Inman and Powell, both are coming home again in one way or another. Inman, who will teach business computer technology, is a 2002 Medical

Lake grad who followed his wife to medical school at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. New Junior ROTC instructor Powell was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base and after time away wanted to return to the area.

Inman returns to Medical Lake after spending last year teaching in Des Moines. The chance to return home for the 2006 Eastern Washington University grad in business communications was a compelling reason for applying for the opening.

But there's a better reason. "Everyone can remember a teacher that impacted their lives, somebody that really made a difference," Inman said. "I want to be that guy."

Inman got into education after working in unrewarding, low-paying jobs after graduating from high school. "I decided to work after high school and found out how hard the real world is. I figured a college degree was the way to go." He earned a masters in teaching from Drake University.

He will offer instruction on the basics on Microsoft Office, web page design and accounting.

Powell is a career Air Force man who established good connections and met many friends during his stint here. He's a true man of the world it would appear. "If it's in the Northern Hemisphere chances are I've been there. I've been up to 75 to 80 countries," he said.

He went on to note he's traveled to "pretty much any state. The only territory I haven't been to is American Samoa. That's on my list if I can do an Australia trip."

So now he's ready to be grounded for a while working with a group of 40 to 60 kids at Medical Lake's JROTC group. "The real purpose of Junior ROTC is building better citizens for America," the 53-year-old Powell said. "It's not a military recruitment program, however we use military form and function as a backdrop."

Powell comes to Medical Lake after serving in a similar teaching role at an inner-city school in Atlanta, Georgia. That, he said was, "Probably everything your friend warned you against," Powell suggested to Knechtges.

The new speech therapist had just related her tale of how she got into her speech specialty after starting out on an education track at the University of

Oregon. "But my first class, the instructor kind of laid it down what it would be like to be a teacher and that scared me," Knechtges said.

"I don't have any kids so the thought of having 30 all at once just kind of scared me," she said. So speech it was with a graduate degree in speech and hearing sciences and the recent grad of the masters program at Washington State University is primed for her new challenge at Medical Lake Elementary.

Instead of a classroom of 30, Knechtges will work with one or two students at a time. "I not only help kids with their speech like wabbit versus rabbit, those kind of errors, but also language," she said. Poking some fun at her funny-sounding name, after she's worked with the kids for a while, "I'm hoping they'll be able to pronounce my name. And if not it's Miss K."

Evans has lived in Medical Lake for 11 years, spending that time as a parent. "My youngest is in fourth grade," she said. That allowed her to get away from being a stay-at-home mom and get to work in another area.

"I just like the service of working in the schools and helping people," Evans said. But there's a plus, she said, as the job allows her to be home with the children in the summer.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com



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