New faculty and staff join McNicholas for the 2019-2020 school year

Four new faculty, staff members have joined McNicholas for the 2019-2020 school year: Biology and Health teacher Dr. Kristy Brandabur, Photography teacher Bea Gardner, Counselor Erica Stablum, and Liturgical Music Director Kim Zang.

Counselor Erica Stablum and Photography teacher Bea Gardner are two of the four new faculty, staff at McNick for 2019-2020. Stablum said she is excited to be at McNicholas and that she is looking forward to a good year.

Before teaching at McNicholas, Dr. Kristy Brandabur taught high school “for several years and taught all the way down to Montessori, and for the last twelve years I’ve been actually teaching college level.”

In the classroom, Brandabur “like[s] to get people engaged … I make people step out of their comfort zone.” Outside the classroom, Brandabur operates “a holistic wellness practice” that focuses on “body, mind, and spirit.”

In the art department, Bea Gardner teaches Photography 1, Photography 2, and AP Photography. Before her daughter notified her of a teaching position at McNicholas, Gardner worked at a public school and was considering leaving teaching.

Gardner has learned that all students have “bugaboos” and that in larger schools it is difficult to make accommodations. At McNicholas, Gardner believes she will be able to dedicate more time to each student. She has “found a lot of deep thinkers” at McNicholas, she said.

In her free time, Gardner “enjoy[s] mucking stalls. … Nature is where I feel … my gravity. [It’s] just me and everything that is bigger than me.”

Erica Stablum joins current counselors Matt Wehrman and Alaina Way in the Counseling and College Readiness Department. She works with students whose last names begin with G through O.

She said she shas “been in Ohio for just over a year” but previously lived in Pennsylvania, Maryland, England, and then Iowa.

“What’s most important for me in my role is to have the opportunity to work with students and feel like I have the time to make … connections,” Stablum said. “In some of the larger schools I’ve worked in, sometimes that’s a challenge because there’s a lot more students and so your time is spread a little thinner.”

Stablum is “really excited to be here.” She said she thinks “McNick is a great place to work, and I think it’s also a fantastic place for our students to learn and grow .”

Taking over the role of liturgical music is Kim Zang, who has “worked together [with Mr. Mueller] in the past,” and was interested when he told her about the position.

Zang enjoys the Catholic school environment where she is “able to speak about God, my faith, and pray.” She thinks that liturgy doesn’t have to be boring, and that it is possible to pick songs for the liturgies that are meaningful but also fun to sing. She wanted to remind all students that the liturgical music group meets “on Thursday during the early release time from 2:15-3:00. EVERYONE is welcome to join us!”