Meet our Preschool and Kindergarten Teacher
I am Rebecca Geneski, the St. Mary’s preschool and kindergarten teacher. I am so blessed to work at this Catholic School which allows me to spend time with Jesus and students. We all grow in our faith together. My encouraging husband works for LG Pumping. Our six greatest blessings are our children who are Gavin, Noah, Sunny, Gwenny, Heidi & Gus. We love spending our time together as a family and being in nature as much as we can. I always look forward to each school year at St. Mary’s with its amazing students, supportive families, and wonderful staff.
Meet our 1st and 2nd Grade Teacher
I am Cindy Beacom and I grew up in Leon, IA, and attended kindergarten through 12th grade at Central Decatur Community Schools. I am married to Shane, and we have three children: Colton, 23, Alexis, 20, and Hunter, 19. They all attended and graduated from Osmond Community School. Colton graduated from Wayne State College, Lexi will be a junior at Wayne State College and Hunter will be a sophomore, also at Wayne State. We have lived in Osmond for the last 27 years in the same house we moved to town in. Shane has been employed at Coni-Tech in Norfolk for almost 21 years. I started out subbing for several different school districts and then my teaching career started at Santee Community School, teaching K-6 Special Education. Before coming to St. Mary’s, I was teaching first grade at St. Rose of Lima School in Crofton. I love to walk and watch a good movie or read a good book. I am excited to be teaching at St. Mary’s as I loved working for St. Rose. I love the family atmosphere that the smaller schools offer and can’t wait to become part of St. Mary’s family.
Meet our 3rd and 4th Grade Teacher
My name is Sonja Kirchoff and I am teaching the third and fourth grade class and physical education at St. Mary’s School. I am very excited to join the staff of St. Mary’s in our community of Osmond! It is my privilege to nurture the students to grow academically and spiritually! I grew up as one of three children in a military family, thus our home was wherever my father was stationed. I have moved 25 different times in my life and have lived in four countries. I received my bachelor’s degree at Chaminade University in Honolulu, HI. I met my husband, Scott, while he was an officer in the army in Hawaii. The first school I taught at was Holy Family Academy in Honolulu. During my first year of teaching, Scott started his seminary education in Indiana. Half of our moves have been due to the grand adventure of ministry. Scott has been a parish pastor, military chaplain and served 20 years in specialized ministry in the federal prison system. We have lived in some unique communities throughout the United States with our two sons. I earned my master’s degree in elementary education from Union College in Barbourville, KY. Our sons are in their mid-20s. Gabriel graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in June, 2023. He is currently stationed at the Air Force Academy until his pilot slot opens in Columbus, MS. Nathan has started his second year at Mercer Medical School in Savannah, GA. God brought us to Osmond a little over 20 months ago because Scott is the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church. We have grown to love the faith, family and farming way of life in this community! I have always enjoyed cooking and yard work, but a new hobby is growing a garden, thanks to several members from our church. My husband and I truly enjoy traveling together to see family, and we especially enjoy going on cruises together. Once again, I am very excited to join the staff, students and families at St. Mary’s for a fantastic upcoming school year!
Meet our 5th-8th Math, Science and K-8th Music Teacher
My name is Susan Harstad and I am looking forward to teaching 5-8 math and science and K-8 music at St. Mary’s School. I am also looking forward to sharing Jesus with my students and helping them to grow spiritually and academically. I grew up on a farm near Pierce with my seven sisters and three brothers. I graduated from Pierce High School before attending and graduating with an association degree from St. Paul’s College in Concordia, MO and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and secondary math from Concordia University in Seward. My first teaching position was in Minnesota where I met my husband, Dan and where we raised our three daughters. Our oldest daughter lives in Orange, CA with her husband and their three children. She teaches A.P. psychology. Our second daughter graduated as a K-12 art teacher. She lives in Alexandria, MN, with her husband and daughter. They are expecting their second child in February. Our youngest daughter lives in Omaha with her husband. She teaches K-1. We moved to Nebraska nine years ago to be closer to family and to care for my parents. I taught nine years at Christ Lutheran School in Norfolk before accepting the position to teach at St. Mary’s. One of my favorite hobbies is attending Broadway musicals with my daughters. I enjoy traveling with my husband and spending time with family and friends. We also look forward to attending Vikings and Twins games.
Meet our 5th-8th Social Studies, English Language Arts & Spanish Teacher
My name is Robin Cheney. I will be teaching fifth through eighth grade social studies, English language arts and Spanish here at St. Mary’s School. I was born and lived in upstate New York until I was 12 years old when my family moved to Orchard. I graduated from Orchard High School and went on to college at the University of New York at Potsdam, where I received my degree in history education. I received my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at Wayne State College and worked on a second endorsement in Spanish at Wesleyan University in Lincoln. I met and married my husband, Ben, in New York and we decided to move back to Nebraska to raise our family. We have three sons named Lance (Elizabeth), Jared (Courtney) and Cole (Rebecca), as well as five grandchildren named Nik, Hayden, Harlie, Jersey and Weston, who is our newest family member at just seven months old. I am coming to St. Mary’s from Christ Lutheran School in Norfolk and have previously taught at Humphrey St. Francis Catholic School in Humphrey. I love sports, especially football and basketball and am a huge fan of the New York Giants and have been to two of their games. I also love to ride horses and I have four, which were shown in 4-H by Jared and Cole. I am so excited to meet and work with all of the students, parents and faculty at St. Mary’s School. I love the small town atmosphere and look forward to getting involved with the community of Osmond.
Meet our Para/Technology
Rhonda Meier
Meet our Secretary
Amanda Schieffer
Meet our Associate Priest
My name is Fr. Kevin Vogel. I was ordained in 2011. I love being a priest out in the rural part of the Archdiocese since I grew up on a farm between Howells and Clarkson. My parents Kenneth and Carol are still parishioners of Ss. Peter and Paul parish in Howells, where I attended Howells Community Catholic Grade School and Howells Public High School. I have three sisters and one brother: Therese (Kent) Hoffart of Hartington, Rita (Ben) Pehl (Sophia, Luke, Leo) of Terry, MT, Rachel of Omaha and Adam of Overland Park, KS. While the Catholic faith was always an important part of our family practice, my initial interests lay first in science, in particular, astronomy and physics. I graduated from UNK with a physics major and math minor, but it was also during this time that I began to become more interested in learning about our Catholic faith. Upon graduation from college, I felt that God might be calling me to the priesthood, but as a scientist, I needed to go to the seminary in order to test the hypothesis. My initial hypothesis was that I was not being called, but after two years at Conception Seminary College and four years at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, I found that I could not see myself doing anything else but follow God’s call for me. I was first assigned at St. Columbkille, Papillion. In 2016, I was asked to be pastor at St. Boniface, Elgin and St. Bonaventure, Raeville. In 2019, following a previous round of pastoral planning, I became associate pastor of the six-parish family (Petersburg, Raeville, Elgin, Clearwater, Ewing, Rural St. John). Consistent throughout my six years, was teaching theology (and sometimes physics) at Pope John Central Catholic. I truly enjoy teaching our faith, whether it is in the context of school or adult formation. Celebrating the Eucharist is also great privilege and joy. For fun, I enjoy learning to sing sacred music, hiking and visiting cemeteries and churches. I also like to edit together videos, those related to our faith (homilies, formation talks, prayer, sacred music) or fun ones related to my hobbies.
Meet our Cook
“Hi: My name is Mary Hoesing. I grew up on a farm near St. James, the youngest of 9 children. I attended Bow Valley , St. Helena and then Cedar Catholic Schools in Hartington. After high school, I went off to Sioux Falls and got a cosmetology degree. I married Jeff Hoesing and moved to Clearwater for 23 years, then to Mullen for 7 years and then back to our familiar area of Northeast NE, near Randolph. Jeff and I have 5 awesome children; 3 boys and 2 girls and 7 grandchildren. I love to cook, garden, read, woodwork with my husband and spend anytime I can get with my children and grandchildren.”
