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BRECKENRIDGE — Three new staff members are joining St. Mary’s School this fall, filling roles in the science classroom, the fourth grade and the front office.
Beth Deal will teach junior high science, Morgan Mostoller will teach fourth grade, and Belinda Slettedahl will serve as the school’s administrative assistant. One is stepping into a new role after years of history with the school. The other two are starting their teaching and administrative careers at St. Mary’s from scratch.
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Beth Deal — Junior high science
Deal is not new to St. Mary’s. She has spent close to 15 years around the school in one capacity or another, starting as a third-grade teacher, then moving through volunteer roles before serving the last two years as science, technology, engineering and mathematics coordinator. This fall, she steps into the junior high science classroom.
“When the need for a junior high science teacher arose, I knew it would be a great fit and an exciting opportunity to continue working with our students in a new way,” Deal said.
The subject matter is new territory even for her — Deal said the course covers several areas of science she hasn’t taught before, which puts her in the same position as her students in some ways. She wants that shared sense of discovery to shape the classroom, with students asking questions and working through problems rather than just absorbing facts.
Hands-on labs and experiments will anchor her lessons, and she plans to fold in Catholic values like kindness, curiosity and perseverance as the year goes on, tying scientific wonder back to the idea of God’s creation.
“I want students to find joy in science, because there is so much to be curious about,” Deal said. Success, to her, would look like a student leaving class with more questions than they came in with. “If something we learn inspires a student to ask more questions and continue exploring, that would be the ultimate success,” she said.
Morgan Mostoller — Fourth grade
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For Mostoller, this fall marks her first year in front of her own classroom. She traces her interest in teaching back to her mother, who spent more than a decade as a paraprofessional at Wahpeton Middle School, and — only half-jokingly — to Miss Honey, the teacher from “Matilda.”
St. Mary’s stood out to her for reasons beyond the job itself. “My faith is very important to me, and the opportunity to teach children about God while also helping them grow academically truly felt like a dream job,” Mostoller said.
Social studies is where her excitement shows the most this year, with plans to bring lessons on the country’s regions and states to life for her students. But her bigger goal sits outside any one subject. She wants a classroom built on collaboration, where kids talk through their thinking out loud, work in groups and build off each other’s ideas rather than working in silence.
“I want every student to feel seen and know that when they walk into my classroom, I notice them and am thankful that they are there,” Mostoller said.
She said she sees her own conduct as a teaching tool in itself, planning to model faith and Catholic values through how she treats people and handles setbacks, not just through lessons about them.
Belinda Slettedahl — Administrative assistant
Slettedahl’s path back to St. Mary’s ran through retail. After an earlier stint as a school administrative assistant, she left education for a time before deciding to return to a field she’d missed. The choice to come back to St. Mary’s specifically wasn’t a hard one — her son is a student there, and she has volunteered at recess and school events for three years.
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“I already love St. Mary’s and the incredible people who make this school so special,” Slettedahl said. “I’m eager to welcome new students and families into our school community while seeing familiar faces every single day.”
She previously worked in the same role at Breckenridge High School, giving her a head start on the office side of the job. What she’s leaning on more, though, is the relationships already built through years of volunteering — she said that history made the shift into daily work at the school feel natural rather than new.
Slettedahl sees her desk as the first impression the school makes on anyone who walks through the door. “The administrative assistant is often the first face or voice families and visitors see or hear, setting the tone for the entire school,” she said.
Her goals for the year are less about the office running smoothly, though that matters too, and more about the people in it. “I want to help create a positive and friendly school environment where every student feels cared for, included and excited to come to school each day,” Slettedahl said.
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