About Us
Cyndy Patros – Lead Instructor and Executive Director
After graduating from Viterbo University, Cyndy began working as a remediation specialist at the Gundersen Medical Foundation. In 1995, The Gundersen Remediation program became The READ Clinic as a part of the Medical Health Science Consortium. In 1997 she became the lead tutor and supervisor for the READ Clinic tutors. Cyndy served as director for the READ Clinic from 2004 until 2011. She is passionate about children and facilitating their journey to becoming independent life long learners.
Stephanie Schaub – Instructor
Stephanie started working at the Coulee Reading Center in June 2018. She tutors both in reading and mathematics. She is from La Crosse, and graduated from Saint Mary’s University in 2012 with a K-8 Education degree with a mathematics concentration and a Spanish minor. While at Saint Mary’s, she worked as a reading tutor in their reading clinic. After college, Stephanie volunteered in Bolivia for 2.5 years as an English teacher at an elementary school there as well as working with various projects there. She currently teaches 4th grade here in La Crosse. She hopes to bring the love of reading and mathematics to your children, and to give them confidence in their abilities.
Norma – Instructor
Norma Arneson has been an elementary school teacher in the La Crosse School District for 35 years and joined the Coulee Reading Center upon retirement, in 2019. Originally from Sterling, Illinois, she attended UW-L where she received her K-8 Education degree as well as her Masters in Education. Her love for teaching has always stemmed from attempting to infuse curiosity and encourage the student to gain a sense of self assurance and confidence in order to instill the love of reading and the joy a book can bring into one’s world. She is excited to give children the encouragement to become an independent and life long learner. She believes each student has their own learning modality and encourages them to use this personal learning style as a guided strength to gain strong reading skills.
Norma enjoys traveling, biking,history and her dog, Ruby (who often comes to The Reading Center as a ‘mini tutor’) and of course….. READING!
Board of Directors
Ann Kotnour (President)
Ronald Chaney (Teasurer)
Maggie Kotnour (Secretary)
Cyndy Patros
Ashley Patros
Tyler Leitzke
Samantha Centanni