Update from the St. John’s Kindergarten

Trisha Ritchie

St. John’s Kindergarten began in person learning on Aug. 17. Due to COVID-19 the school implemented many procedures to keep the children and staff as safe as possible. Some of the new procedures are temperature checks before the students enter the classrooms, face coverings worn in common areas, daily sanitizing, and frequent handwashing. St. John’s Kindergarten is grateful to GMC Glass for donating sneeze guards for the student tables. We appreciate all that Jon Koppe and David Ellenburg have done in helping the staff to prepare for the students return. It has been a blessing to have the students back at school learning and playing together.

We are grateful for the newly installed gate which provides additional safety measures for our students.

This year we welcomed two new teacher assistants to the staff of St. John’s Kindergarten:  Trisha Ritchie and Stacey Shafer.

Trisha Ritchie retired this past June from the Rowan Salisbury school system after 34 years of teaching Kindergarten. With her husband Robert, they live in Landis and enjoy traveling to the beach and mountains. They are avid campers, along with their dachshund, Jackson. Trisha enjoys watching children grow academically and seeing the smile of a child’s face when the learning light bulb shines. She feels very blessed to be part of a strong program at SJK. Trisha is the pre-kindergarten teacher assistant.

Stacey Shafer is teacher assistant two mornings a week in the Kindergarten class. She has enjoyed helping bridge the time between working as Children’s Minister at St. John’s along with the Kindergarten. It brings a great connection and communication between the two. Growing both programs and working with these young children brings her great joy. Stacey has always felt called to be a part of the kindergarten program ever since two of her children went through the program.