Will Fluetsch walked the halls of Brighton High School as a student. On Aug. 17, he'll walk into a classroom at Indian Hills Middle School in Sandy as a first-year eighth-grade math teacher.

Fluetsch is one of several new Canyons School District educators preparing to greet students when the 2026-27 school year begins next week. For families in the Brighton High feeder system, two of those hires land close to home: Fluetsch at Indian Hills and Kaitlynn Johnston, a seventh-grade science teacher at Butler Middle School in Cottonwood Heights.

Both schools feed into Brighton High, according to district records.

Fluetsch said tutoring young Afghan refugees steered him toward teaching. "I realized that teaching was the kind of thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life," he told the Deseret News on Aug. 4. "It felt really impactful and meaningful. I wanted to be in a career where I could clearly see the positive impact."

He got the job.

His Day 1 priority: convincing students they can handle math. He acknowledged that the subject scares many middle schoolers and said he wants his classroom to feel like a place where reasoning and creativity matter more than getting the right answer fast.

Johnston recently relocated from Iowa. She said she wants to make science approachable and help students spot connections to their own lives. During the district's PEAKS orientation on Aug. 4, Johnston told KSL that even veteran teachers get first-day jitters, adding, "Just know we're all going through the new and excited feelings together."

The weeklong PEAKS program, held at Union Middle School in Sandy, helps new hires learn district expectations before classes start. Dozens of first-year teachers attended, including Bethany Crandall, a BYU graduate teaching family consumer sciences and digital literacy at Eastmont Middle, and Heber Clawson, a Southern Utah University alum teaching Spanish at Union Middle.

Landing one of those spots is no small feat. Human Resources Director Tiffany Midgley said hundreds of applicants compete for a limited number of openings each year. The district will employ 53 fewer teachers in 2026-27 because of declining enrollment; Canyons had 31,506 students last year and projects continued decreases over the next five years, according to June 2 board minutes.

Kelly Tauteoli, the district's assistant human resources director over secondary schools, said she looks for teachers who want to build relationships with kids. She warned that first-year educators face what she called a giant mountain of planning while managing day-to-day instruction, and encouraged rookies to lean on mentors and fellow new teachers.

Tauteoli also had advice for parents: if you have a concern about your child's new teacher, just ask. She said approaching the teacher directly with a simple "help me understand this" goes further than frustration.

Utah welcomes roughly 3,000 first-year teachers each school year, with a little over half being new college graduates, according to Utah State Board of Education spokesperson Marie Denson. State law requires every new teacher to have a mentor.

Canyons students report to class Monday, Aug. 17.