With the recent start of the school year comes the opportunity welcome new Pioneer educators to our small town community. The new FE Miley Fourth Grade Teacher, Brittany Barnett, moved to Big Sandy specifically seeking a small Montana town to call home. The young educator came to our community from Wyoming with her husband, Clay, and Lane, their 11 month-old son.
Brittany and Clay grew up in Winnett, MT and were High School Sweethearts. They've been married for two years, but have been a couple for around 11 years. In our conversation, she emphasized over and over the importance they placed on living and raising their family in a small town.
She explained that she had always wanted to teach, "My aunt was the first and second grade teacher in Winnett, and I spent a lot of hours in her classroom. I was her teachers assistant through high school." She attended the University of Montana-Western in Dillon. She graduated in 2018 as the top Female Student of the Year for her class. She was quite humble when I asked her about it, but explained that it was likely because of her 4.0 GPA at the time of graduation.
Brittany and Clay moved to Sheridan, Wyoming in December 2017, where Clay worked for Perry's Trailer Sales and then C&B John Deere. She student taught in Big Horn, Wyoming in the beginning of 2018 and graduated in the spring of 2018. She explained, "We liked the area, and I wanted to student teach where I could potentially teach if a position opened up." In fact, a position opened up in a nearby town. "I taught kindergarten in Clearmont, Wyoming for three years. And then I taught one year of kindergarten in Winnett. This will be my fifth year teaching, because I took the year off when we had Lane."
The growing family made the move to Big Sandy after Clay, "was hired by the state out of Havre. So he drives to Havre, but we were looking to live in a smaller community where we could send our kids to a smaller school and have the small town feel."
The Barnetts built a house on the west side of town. Brittany laughed explain the recurring conversation she's had: "Every time somebody asks where we're living: 'we just say, Oh, we're the new red house on the way to the dump.'" She went on to explain that getting the house established was a fairly smooth process, but that it went close to the wire, in terms of the due date for their son: "It actually went together pretty smoothly. We were kind of under a time crunch because Lane was born October 20, and I think the house got here in August, but we weren't able to move in until the beginning of October. We were in a little bit of a crunch with the baby, but everything kind of flowed really well."
Brittany describes her experience coming into Big Sandy to be positive. She said the community has been welcoming. Much of the transition into our town has been aided by her family connections in the community. She explained that her maiden name is Marion, with her father's family hailing from Jordan, Montana. Her grandparents are Lester and Carol Sluggett, who grew up in Big Sandy. Consequently, she has family connections throughout the community.
Historically, the Barnetts have enjoyed outdoor and ranch-type activities in their free time, like chasing cows and gardening. They are hopeful that they will eventually be able to bring their horses into the area. For now, most of their free time is filled with with baby-related activities. Brittany enjoys reading, though hasn't been able to do as much of it since Lane came along. She is particularly partial to mystery novels.
