St. Joe has lots of new teachers this 2021-2022 school year. Among those teachers is Mrs. Chelsea Layton. Mrs. Layton is originally from St. Louis, specifically the Ballwin area, and has lived there most of her life. However, for the past six years, she lived in Denver, Colorado. This past May, she moved back to St. Louis. She has taught for three years in Missouri and the past six years in Colorado.

“I am so excited to be near family and childhood friends again,” Mrs. Layton said.

She attended Parkway South High School and completed her undergraduate degrees in journalism and Spanish at Mizzou. She then earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from Lindenwood University. Funnily enough, Mrs. Layton claims that she always said she would never become a teacher. She wanted to be a journalist in a Spanish-speaking country, hence her choice in degrees. Then, during her undergrad, she had a summer job as a YMCA sports camp counselor.

“Looking back, I honestly think that is when I subconsciously realized I wanted to work with kids, [but] it took me a couple more years to realize that I wanted to become a teacher,” she said. “Many of the aspects I love about journalism apply to teaching: helping people, learning their stories, writing extensively.”

Mrs. Layton will be teaching Literature & Composition, which is the freshman English course, as well as British Literature, which is the junior English course. She is also the new yearbook moderator. Her previous experience teaching had been in public schools, so Mrs. Layton decided to take a chance and apply at St. Joe when she came across the job posting. During her interviews, she says she had the warmest, most positive gut feeling about both the people at St. Joe and the school, so when they offered her the job, she was “ecstatic.”

 “I love how rich the school is in traditions and the values that the school prioritizes. They make me proud to work here,” she said.

Mrs. Layton’s students certainly feel her enthusiasm in the workplace as well.

Abigail Schoemehl is one of Mrs. Layton’s juniors in her British Literature class.

 “You can tell Mrs. Layton really cares about what she’s teaching and the people she’s teaching it to,” Abigail said.

Another interesting fact about Mrs. Layton is that she has been refereeing basketball for about 17 years. She has refereed everything from youth to high school to junior college. She grew up playing basketball and loves that officiating has been a way for me to stay close to the game she loves.

St. Joe is certainly looking forward to welcoming Mrs. Layton into the community and is very excited to see what she brings to the school.