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Produced & Maintained by Idaho Mountain Express, Box 1013, Ketchum, ID 83340-1013 
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Copyright © 2001 Express Publishing Inc.
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For the week of August 29 - September 4, 2001

  Features

Teacher revels 
in new career

‘It’s my destiny to be here’


First in series


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

It’s the first day at school, and she’s wearing a mint green power suit.

Shaun Merrick is not an inappropriately dressed student, but one of the Wood River Middle School’s newest educators. In addition to the fact that it’s a new school with new faces, it’s, more importantly, a new career for this mid-30s single mother.

Shaun Merrick is a new arts teacher at Wood River Middle School this year. Express photo by Dana Dugan

A Boise native, Merrick, who had a teaching degree but had not used it since she’d married and had children, recently decided it was time to go back to work.

"Teaching was my plan all along," she said.

She pestered the Blaine County School District office about a social studies opening until word of the arts position reached her.

After all, she earned her degree from Albertson College of Idaho in 1992, with an emphasis in art. During her college years, she also studied art in Amsterdam and Paris.

Earlier this summer, she was interviewed by art teacher Chris Malmgren, and WRMS Principal John Cvetich, who wanted to beef up the art department.

"I’m convinced we’ll all turn into robots or killers if we lose the arts," Merrick said.

Her passion for the subject clearly convinced them of her worth. Merrick wasted no time, buying a house in the new Foxmoor subdivision and moving her family up to the Wood River Valley.

"This is a perfect job for me," she said, while siting in a small language arts classroom at the school. She’ll also be teaching the Lindamood-Bell reading process in the language arts program.

Merrick has lofty and admirable plans for her students. "I’ll be responsible for teaching art history; how art affects what we wear, how we look and the buildings we inhabit." It will involve exposing the students to, for instance, Egyptian art, Native American art and Japanese art.

"We’ll start with ancient art cultures and show the progression from art in symbols to cave paintings."

Merrick, whose daughter is in the first grade in Bellevue and whose son is residing temporarily with his father in Boise, has a long history in the Wood River Valley. "I’ve know people here my whole life," she said.

She won the State A1 Singles Tennis Championship here in 1984 for Borah High School. Later, she was a nationally ranked junior singles player and received "a free ride (scholarship) at Albertson," based on her tennis skills. She also plays the violin and cello, and is an avid skier.

Teaching also seems part of Merrick’s history. Her grandmother Nini, who moved here with Merrick and her children, was a school teacher in Mackay, Idaho. Her career began there in a one-room school house in the 1930s when she was just 17.

Every new teacher has a mentor when they start in Blaine County. Merrick’s is Ann Marie Renaud, a reading specialist. They plan on having lunch often to touch base. "She’s there as a support system and coach," Merrick said.

On her first day of school, Monday morning, in her mint green suit, Merrick was carefully calling out names and trying to place faces with them. It’s a long school year, but Merrick, is refreshingly confident.

"It’s my destiny to be here."


The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.