New Teachers at West Bourbon Elementary: Kaity Bradbury and Rhonda Foster
Loretta George
West Bourbon Elementary School, Uniontown, KS
This is a series on new educators in Bourbon County.
USD 235 has six new teachers and all new administrators: new elementary principal, new jr.and sr. high school principal and new superintendent. School starts on August 25.
Kaitlyn Bradbury and her family. Submitted photo.
Kaitlyn Bradbury, 33, is a new fifth-grade teacher at West Bourbon Elementary, Uniontown.
She earned a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education from Pittsburg State University in 2010 and a Masters in Educational Leadership in 2014.
Previously Bradbury has worked as a WBE-Title 1 Math teacher for two years and 4th-grade for four years from 2010-2016.
Her hometown is Uniontown.
She and her husband Tony have three girls Khloe (8), Laine (4), and Andie (1).
Outside of teaching her interests are gardening, spending time in New Mexico, volleyball officiating, and is a member of Dry Ridge Baptist Church.
Bradbury was born into a family of teachers, she said.
“Both of my parents taught at Uniontown, and our lives revolved around the activities that go along with being a teacher/administrator/coach.”
” My parents are quite inspiring to me. I know the positive impact that they made on their students, and I want to leave the same legacy that they did.”
“I love building a lifelong relationship with each of my students. It is rewarding to know that you helped make their school year memorable and that they had fun learning.”
A challenge she sees: “The misconceptions that some of the public have about teachers and what is being taught seems to currently be a big challenge. I take pride in knowing that Uniontown is a district with great teachers, and we all work very hard to see that our students are excelling.”
Rhonda Foster, 61, is a new 4th and 5th grade Math and English Teacher at West Bourbon Elementary School.
She earned a BSE at Sterling College, and a Masters of Special Education from Pittsburg State University.
She has two years experience in general education and five in special education. Her hometown is Moran.
She has two grown daughters and a 17 year-old granddaughter, a 15 year-old grandson and a 5-month-old granddaughter.
In her spare time she loves to bake, sew and crochet, as well as attending her grandchildren’s school activities.
In addition, “I help with Bible school and other church activities,” she said. “In the past I have been a 4-H leader.”
She started her career working as a para-educator and became interested so went back to school when her youngest child was in college.
” I just enjoy working in the school setting with both staff and students,” she said.
For Foster, the best part of teaching is making connections with the students.
A challenge she has experienced in the past is staff shortages, she said.
