Amy Young
Welcome Amy!
Amy Spoonts
Amy Spoonts will be the Waterville Elementary special education teacher. Amy grew up in Beattie where she attended PreK-6th grade and then attended junior high and high school in Marysville. After graduating, she attended Bethany College where she got a degree in Elementary Education and Special Education. Amy played tennis while attending Bethany and that's where she met her husband, Sean.
They have 3 kids: Garrison will be a sophomore at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth where he also plays baseball, Carson will be a senior and enjoys being involved in football, basketball, and track along with lots of other school activities, and Teagan will be an 8th grader and is excited to participate in volleyball, basketball, and track as well as other activities.
Amy just completed 24 years of teaching and has spent most of that time in the regular education classroom (17 years at the 4th/5th grade level and 7 years in PreK). She's taught in a variety of places including Marion, Onaga, Russell, and Eureka. In each of those places her family has enjoyed being very involved with school activities as well as activities in the community. "Our schedule is typically very busy, but that's our "normal!" As if having 3 kids at different levels, new jobs, and a new community wasn't enough, I'm also going to help coach high school volleyball this coming year. I'm excited for all of these opportunities!" Amy shared.
In her spare time, Amy enjoys spending time outside with her family, cooking/baking, experimenting with new designs on her Cricut machine, walking, going to thrift stores and garage sales, playing games, and enjoying nature. "I'm also a Seint Beauty artist. Lastly, I love all things with polka dots and cows!"
Welcome Amy!
Braeden Cox
Welcome Braeden!
Miranda Woodyard
Melinda Flower
Melinda started working at Valley Heights as a substitute custodian 18 months ago. She has enjoyed working in all buildings but is especially excited to be working in the Waterville building because she has always loved that age group of children. Melinda ran a daycare for 12 years and also has enjoyed working at the Blue Valley Cafe and Casey's General Store in the past. Melinda shares, "Serving the community and helping people always makes for a good day!"
Welcome Melinda!
Caley Brenner
Caley will be joining the Valley Heights staff as our PreK-12 Counselor. Some may recognize Caley because she substitute taught for a short period in 2020, and also completed her generalist practicum during the 20-21 school year. Caley recently graduated from Washburn University with her master’s of social work. Previously, she received both under grad degrees from WU, one in Sociology and one in Social Work. Caley has always loved working with children and has worked with children in different capacities such as pre-school teacher, preschool assistant director, community mental health case manager and social work intern at Valley Heights and Bluemont Elementary School. She also worked with both middle school and high school students the past two years assistant coaching Volleyball, boys and girls basketball, and MS/HS track. Caley was originally an elementary education major before switching school tracks, so working with students in the school setting has always been in her future career path.
Caley was raised all her life in Randolph and attended Blue Valley. She moved back a few years ago and plans to settle down in this area, and appreciates the small-town vibe. Caley lives with her fiancé and their two cats, Eugene and Hazel, and crazy dog, Doris. They are getting married in September of this year.
Welcome Caley!
Summer 2023
What a summer it's been!
We've had so much fun this summer at Camp Exploration, and we want to thank you for making
it possible. Without your support, our summer camp would not have been such a success—and
we can't wait to do it again next year.
Our summer camp was all about rockets, RC cars, Flying classrooms, Christmas in July,
teamwork, and FUN—but even more than that, it was about friendship and giving back.
Watching the students and staff grow together in understanding each other made us so proud.
We love seeing how much they've grown over the last couple of months. Check out a few of the
images we captured from the summer below!
As we get ready to get back to school we’d like to remind everyone that Colt's Round-Up starts
in September, and our fitness and gymnastics Community Ed classes will be starting up again
soon! You can sign up for these classes online by clicking the Community Ed link and going to
the forms and registration page at valleyheights.org or emailing Tony Yungeberg at
tyungeberg@valleyheights.org. We look forward to seeing you there!
