Classes resumed for students on Thursday, Aug. 12 and several new faces greeted them on the various Escalon Unified School District campuses.

The new hires were spread out across the district, at elementary sites as well as El Portal Middle School and Escalon High School as well as the district’s charter school, Gateway Academy.

New elementary staff members include Karina Ruiz, second grade; Franchesca Rojo, kindergarten, Collegeville; Riley Shultz, second grade, Dent; Karissa Silva, fourth grade, Farmington; Hannah Nelson, second grade; Michelle Bergquist, fourth grade, Van Allen.

Nate Caton will be a special education teacher at Dent, while Casey Pettit will be a special education teacher for Collegeville and Farmington. Diana Ayala is a new elementary music teacher and will work at several sites.

There have been several intervention/resource specialist teachers added to the elementary staff, brought on to aid students who may have fallen behind during distance learning that was utilized for part of the last school year.

Those teachers include: Joanne Ortega, Collegeville; Alyse Kisst, Jessika Cowell, Tori Lee, Dent; Julia Camera, Farmington; Shelly Hurst-Mueller, Van Allen.

Joining the El Portal Middle School staff are Markie Hageman, Heather Dado, English Language Arts. New high school staff members include Spanish teachers Sandra Bravo (also at El Portal) and Barbara Rivera; Math teacher Erika Olson; English teachers Myranda Verdin, Jason Armstrong, Teddy Gonzalez; Biology teacher Arend Jones and Physics teacher Charles Keller.

Gateway Academy welcomes new staff members Laura Stickels and April Adams.