Benilde-St. Margaret’s is excited to welcome their new teachers and staff members for the 2023-2024 school year. With the teacher shortage due to COVID, 13 new staff members is a large amount to receive.
The new staff members range in athletics, the arts, English, history, and theology. As more new teachers arrive at BSM, the school is able to assess how it welcomes these new teachers and how the school as a whole is perceived. The new choir teacher Miriam Augsburger has prior teaching experience. Her passion for teaching older students, such as high school students, is what pulled her to join the BSM community. She mentioned her passion for choir and the creativity it allows for students. She explains that teaching students at BSM has been a positive experience for her so far. “The students are very motivated, and the staff is all very friendly…I’ve really enjoyed getting to know people here,” Augsburger said.
Miriam Augsburger
The students are very motivated, and the staff is all very friendly…I’ve really enjoyed getting to know people here.
— Miriam Augsburger
Along with new teachers, BSM has obtained a new president who is an alum of the school. Danielle Hermanny. This position entails a busy day-to-day life, constantly figuring out how to make the school a more inclusive and welcoming place. The role of president is a major one, and she has the potential to make a big impact on the school. Her main goal is to improve the school as a whole, but she has more specific goals as well. “I want to increase opportunities for students to explore things that they’re interested in. I want to highlight the Catholic identity of our school and have that be an opportunity for students. I want this to be a place where people graduate from and is a big part of their story, and it is a community they know they always belong,” Hermanny said.
Another new teacher is Dan Murray, who teaches human geography, which is a new course that freshmen are required to take either at the regular level or at the AP level. He majored in political science and German in college. He previously taught German at BSM, but after that, he taught at Eden Prairie for 25 years. “BSM is much smaller, actually a third of the size in population [of Eden Prairie]. You get to know the people a lot better, and that’s a big bonus,” Murray said.
Overall, as these new teachers settle in and become a part of our community, they get to meet new students and teachers and discover their favorite parts of BSM.