Kingfisher ag educator Lori Burns is one of five new teachers with Kingfisher ties hired recently by Dover Public Schools, Supt. Max Thomas announced.

Those teachers include Burns, who will teach junior high science and leadership classes (see related story); Dylan Blundell, high school social studies and baseball coach, and his wife Tiffany Blundell, kindergarten; Amy Wilczek, first grade, and Caitlyn Stucki, third grade.

Burns, Blundell, Wilczek and Stucki are all KHS graduates.

Dylan Blundell graduated with highest honors from the University of Central Oklahoma in December with a degree in history education.

He currently teaches seventh grade science at Clinton Middle School.

He worked as a volunteer coach at KHS from 2016-18 in the baseball, wrestling and football programs and helped coach spring and summer middle school and high school baseball games.

His wife Tiffany earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from UCO in 2016 and has taught first and second grades in Oklahoma City and Clinton public schools since that time.

She currently teaches second grade at Southwest Elementary School in Clinton.

Wilczek earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 2017.

Following graduation, she taught one year as a pre-K teacher at Harvest Hills Elementary School in Oklahoma City and currently teaches first grade at the same school.

Stucki earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at UCO in December.

She currently serves as a long-term substitute teacher at Gilmour Elementary School.

“We have added five outstanding educators to an elite staff at Dover,” Thomas said. “I’m excited about what the future holds for Dover Public Schools.”

The five new teachers join a faculty and staff at Dover that includes a number of former Kingfisher educators.

The district has hired several retired KPS teachers to serve as one-to-one tutors and teach in enrichment programs.

Among them are retired elementary teacher Lisa Storm, who teaches art, and former part-time Kingfisher teacher Molly Neuman, who teaches music.

Thomas, who also serves as superintendent at Chisholm Trail Technology Center, was hired last summer to breathe new life into the district, which was struggling with falling enrollment and low test scores exacerbated by a fire a few years ago that decimated the high school and junior high portion of the school campus.

Since then, Thomas has worked to assemble a faculty and staff to help bring students back to the new building that has since been constructed and steer the district back on a course of academic success.

“The school board has been very supportive and we’re focusing solely on academics and the programs that we know enhance academic achievement, like music and art,” he said. “If we get that right, the rest will fall into place.”