Teacher Spotlight: Mrs. Ortell

Mrs. Ortell a phenomenal teacher. She is the department chair for the music department because let’s be honest – she is the music department! She is both the band and choir teacher with four bands, and two choirs which is an impressive amount. This year is her second year at this school and she has already done amazing things for the musical program at JPEC. She has taken the Advanced Choir students to Festival, an event in which different choirs sing and are scored on their singing prowess, and in the choir’s first year, they got twos (That’s really good for a first year, if you’re not a choir geek)! She has also set up many opportunities for her band students, like college honor bands. She also coaches the girls cross country team.

Mrs. Ortell began her career by attending Spring Arbor University. She has been teaching for about eleven years, and has taught band and choir at schools before coming to JPEC. She began thinking of becoming a music teacher her senior year of high school. Her fantastic career has been spent teaching students and overall, she excels at it.