When ceramics teacher Sue Redfield retired last year after many years of teaching with the district, the hunt for someone to fill the position began. It was hard to find someone with the same passion about art as Redfield, but SFHS found an excellent addition: Debra Paquay.  

For the last seven years, Paquay has been teaching at the public schools in St. Paul. She was teaching a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, and sculpting to  middle schoolers. When teaching at the middle school, she loved getting to know all of her students. Paquay considered all her students her children since she does not have any of her own.

“You get so connected to your kids” said Paquay. “It was just a really beautiful day saying goodbye to the kids, you know moving on and knowing that they are going to be ok.”

As the first few weeks of school passed, Paquay shared her thoughts and her students’ first assignments they are working on in class.

“First few weeks have been fantastic actually. I told my classes this is one of the nicest groups of kids I have ever taught.”  said Paquay. “We are making masks in ceramics one, and we are making tikis in ceramics two, and they are turning out really well.”

Since Paquay’s  arrival, her students have expressed a great liking of her teaching style and attitude towards art.

“She said at the beginning of our class, if you don’t want to do the thing she wants you to do you can do your own project if you talk to her about it,” said ceramics two student, Riley Kelly.

Ceramics one student, Kyle Keehr, agreed with Kelly. “She is very approachable,” said Keehr.

Besides the change for the students, it has also been a positive change for Jennifer Close, the other faculty member in the art department.

“The biggest thing is being able to bounce ideas of somebody who is new to the district,”  said Close.

Paquay is very excited for the upcoming year getting to know all the St. Francis students and teaching her main passion: ceramics. She really wants her students to get some great art experience and be creative gave by her continuity.

“I want them to have a real experience making a real piece of art,” said Paquay, “not a project – creating it to be the best possible thing they can do at that time.”