Niswender lands dream job

Laura Niswender has always wanted to teach in a rural small school setting.

She has achieved her goal, although not teaching exactly. Niswender is the new principal of the Hanna Elementary, Elk Mountain Elementary and Medicine Bow Elementary schools.

She will be the third new principal for the schools in three years. Niswender may be new to Carbon County, but she knows Wyoming well.

"I was born and raised outside of Laramie and my husband, Terry, and I currently live out by Harmony, which is outside Laramie off 230," Niswender said. "We both worked for the school district in Albany County and he still does. I just capped a 20 year tenure at Laramie High School as a special education teacher."

Niswender has attended University of Wyoming three different times, the last time earning her masters in School Administration.

Education became Niswender's center of studies in college after an aunt, Carol James of Encampment, suggested she consider it as a career.

"I fell in love with it. I liked the classes and I knew if I liked the classes, I would like it as a job," Niswender explained.

She got her degree in Elementary Education and looked for jobs in Laramie, where her husband already had a job,

Her first job was with Head Start, where she worked four years. Two years after she left Head Start, Niswender was a special education para-professional at a high school.

This eventually led her to getting certified as a special education teacher. She took a job at Cathedral Home for Children in Laramie for a year.

"I credit a lot of who I am as a teacher now to how I deal with conflicts and challenging kids to my year there," Niswender said. "I had to really learn what was driving a kid's behavior and work with them and build a relationship."

Laramie High School asked her to come on board to work in the new Personalized Learning Strategies program. She did this for four years. Then Niswender taught four years as a resource teacher. This led her to take on the emotional disability teaching position for five years. The last seven years she went back to being a resource teacher while working on her masters. Now she is in Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) as principal of three elementary schools.

"Ever since I started in education, I wanted to be a rural teacher," Niswender said. "When I was working on my masters, jobs in rural schools was where I looked. I have an affinity for that population. I understand how kids are needed on ranches. I grew up out in the country and know, when branding is going on, kids are needed."

She and her husband agreed that jobs within two hours was where she should look. Niswender said she saw the job opening last year for the principal of the three schools but had not completed her masters.

Now that she is the principal, Niswender can tell that each community where the schools are located are unique. She finds herself comfortable in each facility.

COVID-19 guidelines from CCSD2 are being adhered to and Niswender said she is amazed at how well the students are conforming.

"The kids and staff have been great," Niswender said. "We try to keep the day as normal as possible with safety always in mind."

She is glad the students are getting social interaction again. Niswender believes in classroom education over online, for the most part. She said a teacher, in person, can catch a student's hesitation with a problemhat is hard to detect over video.

A major goal of Niswender is to foster stability in the school's programs after going through COVID-19 and different principals in a short time frame.

"I want the staff to be comfortable with me and trust my decisions and trust my interactions with them," Niswender said. "I feel like this job is sort of destiny because I told my husband if the job opened up again, I wanted to apply and the next week the job opened up."