Meet the new Haines school teachers

Rosana Prio is originally from Catalonia, Spain, and has been teaching for 13 years. Five of those years have been in the U.S, where she was teaching in Colorado through an exchange program with the Spanish Ministry of Education. It was in Colorado where she met superintendent Roy Getchell, who was her principal at the time. When the Haines School had open positions, Getchell reached out to Prio, “I said of course – I didn’t think it twice.” This year, Prio will be teaching third grade. She has always taught elementary school students. In Spain, in addition to teaching math, science, and social studies courses in both Spanish and Catalan, she also taught ESL – English as a second language. Prio is no stranger to small communities either. In Catalonia, she lived for 10 years up in the mountains in a town of 40 people with no grocery store or gas station. She came to Haines with her husband and son who will start fifth grade. Her family is very active, and they enjoy backcountry skiing, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, and hiking – “all of that kind of stuff related to outdoors and mountains and lakes.”

Zachary Tourville will be teaching all the science classes for Haines High School students, including environmental science, earth science, engineering, physics and physical science. He will also be teaching health. Before coming to Haines, Tourville was working at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, running lab classes in the physics department. “My job at the university was more kind of administrative and supervisorial, which I didn’t like. I kind of missed just being in class with students.” He taught high school math and science in California for 20 years. “I came to Haines because it’s gorgeous here and I missed the mountains and the ocean. Fairbanks is really flat.” Over the summer, Tourville drove between Haines and Fairbanks a couple of times, and has been on some good hikes in town. He also enjoys sea kayaking, paddling and biking. Tourville is excited about teaching all the high school science classes. “I’ll have the students year after year and can help them build real specific scientific thinking skills instead of just having them for a year and then they’re gone and who knows what they learned in somebody else’s class.” He said that the high school has experienced some turnover with teachers, which tends to be challenging for the students. Another thing he’s excited about is incorporating the natural beauty of Haines into his curriculum. “I’m excited about the fact that we have so much right here in terms of the nature that is directly applicable to all the science classes. So I hope to spend as much time outside as possible with the students.”

Katie Polcyn will be teaching high school math this year. She grew up in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but spent the last 11 years in Shaktoolik, a community of about 250 people in the Bering Straits region, teaching high school and middle school math. “With everything going on in Shaktoolik, I decided I’d try out and see what happened. It’s the only job I applied for, and I got it, and I figured it was a sign, so I came here.” She arrived in Haines about a month ago with her husband and their two little dogs. She said Haines reminds her of the small town she grew up in and loved in Wisconsin. “I’m excited just to get a rhythm in the new school, make relationships, and get to know the community as well.” Polcyn is currently enrolled in a master’s program in math education through Montana State University. In her free time, she enjoys photography and growing plants. She even brought some carnivorous plants all the way from Shaktoolik.

Jeff Anderson arrived in Haines during the fair, and was able to enjoy some good weather and music before prepping for his social studies and Spanish classes. This will be his 26th year teaching, with six years of middle school and 19 years of high school experience in Bend, Ore.. Anderson and his wife recently became empty nesters, “so we figured this would be a great time to switch it up. I was ready for something new and different in my teaching career.” Since being in Haines, Anderson has been working on his boat and fishing. “I haven’t caught any sockeye yet, but I’ve caught a bunch of pinks.” He enjoys fly fishing and anticipates tying flies over the cold winter months to keep himself busy. Anderson is excited to be in Haines and is looking forward to starting the school year. “I’ve been immediately impressed by what a great school a town of Haines’ size has and what quality staff they have in it.”

Jessica Molyneux is the new fifth-grade teacher. She is originally from Washington, but most recently taught in Pelican, a town of about 150 people southwest of Haines. Molyneux spent three years teaching in three different Alaskan communities, but said “so far, this is my favorite place that we’ve been in.” Before Pelican, she taught on Prince of Wales Island and in Kotlik. Haines is larger than the other communities she’s lived in, and “there’s more to do.” She moved to Haines the second week of July, and has been hiking, fishing and getting settled. In Pelican, Molyneux was the only elementary school teacher, responsible for teaching six kids of different grades. She also has experience teaching fifth and sixth grade math in Idaho. She said fifth grade is one of her favorite grade levels.