Hello, visitors. My name is Kelly Stoner, and this is my eighth year teaching English at Capital High School. I previously taught English at Skyview High School in Billings and at Hardin Middle School in Hardin. The Helena community is definitely the most "teacher-friendly" area I have been, and I thoroughly enjoy teaching in the Helena school district. The community's support for education is incredible, and it makes my job much easier than it would be otherwise.

I have been married for 17 years. My husband, Dennis, works fulltime for the National Guard, which is what brought us to Helena from Billings, where I lived most of my life. Over the last seven years I have really come to enjoy the Helena area (getting a CostCo didn't hurt). The past two years have been difficult for us.  In January 2010 my husband left for a year-long deployment to Afghanistan with his National Guard unit. They first went to Hawaii to finish training with a Hawaii unit that they were deploying with, and while there Dennis was diagnosed with a serious medical condition called neurofibromitosis, which causes benign tumors to grow off nerve endings in the body. Dennis had five tumors in his brain and two in his spinal column. Because of this, he was not able to go to Afghanistan with his unit, and he was not able to leave Hawaii because the military doctors would not clear him to fly until he had the two most dangerous tumors removed. I joined him in Hawaii on Feb. 3, 2010, and we did not return to Helena until August 2010. In September 2010 we went to Salt Lake City, where Dennis had gamma knife radiation on the four remaining tumors in his brain, and fortunately, this has kept the tumors from growing. As long as they continue to not grow, he should not need to have these tumors removed. While Dennis does have some lingering health issues, he is definitely in much better shape than he was a year ago, and we are confident that his condition is under control.

On a lighter note, my husband and I have four “kids” of the animal persuasion. Our dogs are Cleo and Max, both miniature pinschers. They can be a bit of a handful, but they can also be the sweetest little dogs in the world.  We also have two cats named Patra and Diesel. Most of the time, everyone gets along just fine.

Since I am an English teacher, it is safe to assume that reading is something I thoroughly enjoy. Unfortunately, also because I am an English teacher, I do not get to read for pleasure nearly as much as I would like. I also enjoy sports, especially football, and working on my house and my yard. I am a bit of a home improvement nut, so I spend a lot of time during the summer months on various projects in the house and the yard.  I also spend a lot of time tending to my flowers, which I really enjoy.

I could bore you with details of the life of an English teacher, but I will do you a favor and leave it here. I hope this web site proves to be beneficial to all who visit it.

Kelly Stoner