EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one in a series of features on new teachers at Dodge City High School.
Dodge City High School's resource rooms are packed with some valuable new resources - teachers.
Eight of USD 443's most recently recruited faculty members were busy getting ready for the new school year Monday, along with the rest of Dodge City's teachers.
In fact, the high school was hopping on the day before school started - teachers were carrying boxes into classrooms, secretaries were buzzing, students and families were signing up for this and that, and principal Jacque Feist was right there in the thick of it all, directing the flow.
Two of the new teachers were hunkered down in the high school's McCarty Resource Room, preparing for the hundreds of teenagers scheduled to arrive the next day. McKenzie Ferguson is brand new to the classroom, and Scott Krominga has been teaching for 17 years. The veteran and the novice have a couple of strong bonds, though — they both love science and they're both new to USD 443.
Old and new
Neither one has come from very far away. Ferguson graduated from DCHS and Krominga came to Dodge via Spearville High School, just 17 miles down the pike.
"Let's just say this isn't my first rodeo," said Krominga with a grin. "But even though I've seen every trick a kid can throw at a teacher, I still love the start of the school year. It's always exciting, whether you're the new teacher or the old one."
Krominga, who will teach biology and physical earth sciences, grew up in small-town Colorado.
"I'm an education brat. My dad's a teacher too, so we moved around," he said. "But I'm basically a Colorado boy — I know the flatlands, and I know my way around a ranch. I can get out there and brand or eartag anytime they need me. But I love the mountains more than anyplace else, and I'm just as handy hiking around up there."
Krominga said he's still as excited about science as he was on the day he first fell in love with it.
"Just think — last year alone, there were 30 new species of frogs and over 40 new species of insects discovered," he said. "One of them is a transparent, cave-dwelling scorpion. And consider that only 10 percent of the ocean has been mapped. Our kids could be the people who help map some of the rest of it. Whether it's a new ring around Saturn or the meteor shower that took place just last night, to be excited about science is to be excited about life."
Krominga paused and grinned again.
"And if I can't get them excited, I settle for getting them to see how absolutely relevant science is to their lives." he said. "Every year, I challenge my students to come up with just one career that has nothing to do with science. And every year, they can't do it."
Krominga got his bachelor's in science education from the University of Northern Colorado and has worked with animals for a good chunk of his career. Visitors to Oklahoma's Omniplex Science Museum won't soon forget the sight of Krominga leading a flock of baby ducks around the lobby.
"I taught them to swim, too," he said, demonstrating his teaching method by waving his fingers. "I was the first thing they saw when they hatched, so they thought I was their mother."
