Holy Childhood School Welcomes Three New Teachers

Ms. Caron Proffer, 5th-Grade Teacher

Ms. Vicki Mills, 4th-Grade Teacher

Ms. Jessica Graul, Preschool Director and Pre-K Teacher

By Jade Marceau–Mary

jmarceau@heraldpubs.com

Ms. Vicki Mills, Mrs. Caron Proffer, and Ms. Jessica Graul are the three new teachers at Holy Childhood School in Mascoutah, IL. While Ms. Vicki Mills is the new 4th-grade teacher, Mrs. Caron Proffer is the new 5th-grade teacher, and Ms. Jessica Graul is the new preschool director/Pre-K teacher.

Ms. Vicki Mills has been teaching, for now, her 26th year. She graduated from Millikin University with a BA in Elementary Education. She chose the Holy Childhood School to get closer to her sisters, who also works at the Holy Childhood School. Mrs. Caron Proffer has been teaching kindergarten through adults for more than 25 years. She earns her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and her master’s degree in special education. Mrs. Jessica Graul graduated from the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. After graduating, she spent some time working in a K-2 Autism room in South St. Louis before accepting a job working in the preschool classroom at Marie Schaefer in O’Fallon, IL. After a few years, she started one of the first preschool classrooms at Estelle Kampmeyer School in O’Fallon. She continued teaching preschool at EK for a few more years before leaving to work with her family. HCS will be her great “ back at school!”

All three teachers are originally from the area, “Mascoutah is a closed net, a lot of families have been here for generations,” Ms. Vicki Mills said. All three teachers are also particularly excited to find themselves in different class settings. HCS classes are much smaller, with about 15 students per class, in contrast to 20 to 30 students per class in their previous classrooms. This year is also going to bring some novelty and memories to our new teachers. “I look forward to concentrating on maths, even though there is a different level of math. It’s been a long time since I worked in a traditional classroom, but I feel like working with students and parents now,” Proffer said. “I’m excited before I came from a public school, so now, because I am at a Private Catholic School, I get to also incorporate religion into it, which I wasn’t able to do in a public school,” said Graul.