The excitement took over. With a knack for baking and an eagerness to impress her family, a young Kate Gilmour was ready to take on the challenge of baking her grandfather’s birthday cake. A few hours after starting, the cake came out of the oven, crumbling all over the place. She had forgotten the eggs!

Gilmour has always enjoyed baking from a young age, but later found a new passion for teaching. She has joined the PV staff this year as an English teacher for four classes of sophomores and one class of juniors.

Gilmour graduated from Pascack Hills in 1999 and went on to Rutgers University, where she majored in English. After graduating, she began exploring education as a career. She started as a substitute teacher and eventually became a one-to-one aid to a student with emotional needs.

“After being with that student, I realized that I wanted to go into education as a career,” Gilmour said. “It was the environment for me.”

Gilmour is not the only new teacher this year. PV also welcomes Dayna Lane, William Lynn, and Kimberly Simunovich. Lane is both an environmental biology and a Spanish II teacher, but has already been a special education teacher for 11 years. Lynn has been a teacher since 2005 and is now teaching special education mathematics at PV. Simunovich was a student teacher at PV and now is filling in full time for Mrs. Patricia Hawkins who went on maternity leave.

“I’m looking forward to being here,” Gilmour said. “I love everyone’s excitement and the school pride. In my classes, I hope to navigate a whole bunch of new books with students.”