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Staff and Board Member Years of Employment at Greenspire

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    Rick Farfsing

    Rick Farfsing was superintendent at Greenspire for the first year of Greenspire in 2011. He was also an independent contracter for the school through the end of the 2014 school year.
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    Gina Aranki

    Gina Aranki has served as a board member since 2008. She joined the Greenspire School because she was asked to join the board by a previous board member, Jill Holden. She liked the vision for the school,the environmental emphasis, the idea that students would spend a significant time outdoors, and project-based learning. Everything she heard sounded like what Gina wished her own middle school experience would be.
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    Kurt Sanford

    Kurt Sanford was one of the first to start the Greenspire School. He is the current board president.
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    Jill Holden

    Jill Holden was a previous board member and a mom of a Greenspire student.
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    Blythe Skarshaug

    Blythe Skarshaug joined the Greenspire School Board as a trustee June 23, 2008. “ At some point she was appointed treasurer of the board. On February 20, 2012 she resigned as treasurer and was voted in as secretary.
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    Raymond Minervini

    Raymond Minervini, is current vice-president of the Greenspire School Board.
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    Michele Worden

    Michele Worden is the current school board treasurer of the Greenspire School. Her first term was from January 2011 through December 2012. She has also served as Della Terra Director of the school gardens program at the Childrens house.
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    Dawn Oh

    Dawn Oh has been a board member since Greenspire School started. She also taught math for the school in 2011. She is currently a board member and has a son that previously went to Greenspire.
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    Corey Hanson

    Corey Hansen started work at Greenspire the spring of 2012 and is still working here present day. His past jobs include program coordinator for youth crisis home. He teachers physical education and outdoor education at the Greenspire School. His birthday is
    January,10,1977.
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    Sarah Johnson

    Sarah Johnson was superintendent of the Greenspire school through the 2014 school year. She was also a social studies teacher and mom to a former Greenspire student.
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    Kelly Francisco

    After moving back to Michigan from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Kelly Francisco fell in love with the Greenspire curriculum, and was one of the first on staff. She was interested in a teaching job in Traverse City at a school with a “novel approach to education” as she explained. She fell in love so very quickly because she loves interacting with the unique Greenspire Community. She is a huge part of the innovative curriculum, as she works day in, and day out to make TGS happen efficiently.
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    Melissa Huiskens

    Melissa Huiskens has been a Greenspire School substitute teacher from 2011-2015.
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    Marya Tyler

    Marya Tyler was a math and science teacher at The Greenspire School.
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    Lauren Kline

    Lauren Kline worked at The Greenspire School as the physical education teacher during the 2011-2012 school year.
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    Yvette Ringsmuth

    Yvette Ringsmuth started working at Greenspire in 2011 school year. Her current job at Greenspire is teaching Mandarin. She is also a parent of two. Both her children have attended the Greenspire School.
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    Krista Kane

    Krista Kane was a previous spanish teacher at Greenspire School.
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    Will Havill

    Will Havil was born and raised in Traverse City. He went to Eastern Elementary, East Junior High and Traverse City Senior High. He continued his education and went to Northwestern Michigan College, then moved to Michigan went to school at WMU. After Will finished his degree, he moved to Chicago where he worked in film. He then moved to Seattle to work in a North Face Store. He then realized that he missed living in Traverse City, so he moved back and went to Central Michigan University.
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    Ben Green

    Ben Green served as a part of the staff as a special education teacher from 2012-2014.
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    Erin Fitzpatrick

    Erin Fitzpatrick was inspired to teach at Greenspire where project-based learning was taught. Erin has taught at Greenspire from 2012-2015. She teaches literature, science and spanish and english in the past.
    Previous jobs: Erin has worked 3+ different schools.

    Hobbies/Family: Erin lives with her partner Gavin, her two dogs: Ambrose and Rita, her cat: Kitty, one snake: Ronan and two frogs. She likes sewing, cooking and traveling.
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    Scott Huiskens

    Scott Huiskens was a board member and currently serves on a board committee. He is also a parent of two Greenspire Students.
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    Sarah Payette

    Sarah Boyd Payette was a staff member from the fall 2013 through the current school year. Sarah currently works as an Administrative Assistant for The Greenspire School. Sarah enjoys working with her coworkers and her relationships with all of the students. Sarah was inspired to begin at Greenspire because of the cutting edge approach to education and intelligent staff members who think outside the box. She enjoys camping and is married to Peter Payette and has three children Belle, Amelia and E
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    Katie Tomczyk

    Katie Tomczyk was a passion driven co-teacher who loves kids, and adores watching them grow up into mature young adults.
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    Tara Ward

    Tara Ward joined the board in June of 2014 while doing her other job which is at the nonprofit organization, SEEDS.
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    Phil Girard

    Phil Girard started working at the Greenspire school during the fall of 2014. What inspired him to work at Greenspire was the campus itself and how he could blend both his love of the the outdoors and recreation along with recommendations from parents of children who go the school. Some previous jobs he had were supporting and augmented English curriculum for 6th-12th grade students. He also worked as site coordinator for MEAP testing at Manistee location.
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    Kevin Kelly

    Kevin Kelly is Greenspire School's principle.
    He has been here for one year.
    He was a mid high school teacher/principal.
    The Greenspire School was impressed by his previous work.
    His hobbies are hiking and boating.
    He has a wife and two sons.
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    Eric Breithaupt

    Eric started working at Greenspire in the fall of 2014. He is a middle school math teacher. He had known about this school since it started. He was interested in working here, but did not have any experience with the Montessori program. The concept of the school inspired him to become a teacher here at Greenspire. He enjoys coaching basketball and soccer. He also tutors high school math.
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    Emily Ferguson

    Emily Ferguson was a student teacher at Greenspire for over two months. First she started out teaching science, from variables to science formulas she knew it all. But that was not all. Weeks later she switched into math. If you had a question she had the answer, she had an answer that you could understand.
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    Virginia Tegal

    Virginia Tegal is a co-teacher at The Greenspire School. She has been working there since January 11, 2015. Virginia likes very student focused, project based learning. She also loves being outdoors. Virginia would really like to become a part of the Greenspire Community even more than now.
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    2015-16 School Year

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    Megen Bardorff 2015-16

    meagen battdorrf
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    Emily Furgason

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    Claire Alexander

  • Jill rowley

  • Megaen batdorff