Faculty and Staff Teaching Team for 2009-10 School Year Loretta (Lori) Woods joined our staff last year as our first principal. She is a graduate of East Tennessee State University. She and her husband of seventeen years have two teenaged sons. The Woods family moved to Asheville to further pursue the call of God on their lives. Along with her background in Elementary Education, Mrs. Woods has "served" in ministry for over fifteen years. She worked as a children's Pastor for many years where she helped establish a thriving program targeting elementary aged children. "I strongly believe in the vision of our school . . . I know that God handpicked each of us and placed us here at New City for His purpose. I feel so blessed to be a part of what He is doing in the lives of our students and their families. I am going to continue to walk in love and allow Him to use me in whatever way he will."--Principal Lori Woods Laurel Foreman returns for her fourth year as the lead teacher in the kindergarten classroom. She graduated from Covenant College in 2001 with a B.A. in Biblical Studies. She spent two years teaching English in China, working with both children and adults. She has been a substitute teacher in Florida and a first grade aide at Veritas Christian Academy in Fletcher, NC. She has been a tutor at the Hillcrest Enrichment Center, KIPP: Asheville Youth Academy and New City Christian School tutoring services. Tonya Johnson is our first grade teacher. Tonya is a graduate of Auburn University. She and her husband Abe have 3 children whom they homeschooled until several years ago; all three are now in college. She has specialized training in the Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading instruction. Tonya has also been a tutor at the Hillcrest Enrichment Center, KIPP: Asheville Youth Academy and New City Christian School tutoring services. Gina Snyder is our new 2nd & 3rd grade teacher. Upon completing her associate’s degree at Montreat College, she received her bachelor’s degree in education at Taylor University and finished 21 hours of graduate level work at Central Michigan University in educational administration. After homeschooling her two children, Gina was trained as an Orton-Gillingham tutor for associate and advanced levels. She is licensed as an academic language teacher through ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association). Besides tutoring children who struggle with reading, spelling, and/or writing, she taught homeschool group classes in art and architecture history, visual arts, physical science, English, and spelling. Gina enjoys gardening, hiking, traveling, learning new things and children. “When God gives a gift or talent to an individual, that person is most happy when exercising that gift. God has given me the love of teaching and blessed opportunities for me to use that gift. While I am honored to come to New City, I am also humbled, realizing that only through Christ can I effectively accomplish the task before me. I’m sure that I will be learning at least as much as the children. I look forward to meeting my students’ families and hope to become a partner with them in the education of their children.” --Gina Snyder Coral Jeffries is the executive director and founder of the school. She earned a B.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama Birmingham. She has served on a task force for the Literary Council of Buncombe County. She is married to Brent Jeffries and is home-schooling the last of their four children.