At precisely 4:24 a.m. every weekday morning, Laura Montgomery’s alarm clock clangs, noisily ending her peaceful slumber. She pulls the bed covers back, sits up, yawns. She puts on some new clothes, a jacket and shoes, grabs a flashlight and walks out the door. Hours before school starts at FHN, Montgomery is already hard at work.

“Mornings go by kinda fast,” Montgomery said. “I try to get all my chores done as quickly as possible.”

Best known as an Advanced Placement and Honors Biology teacher at North, Montgomery, affectionately called “Monty” by many of her students, does much more than just plan lessons, grade assignments and write tests. A large portion of her time outside of school is spent running her very own “farm.”

“I have two horses, two dogs, and a cat on about an acre of land,” Montgomery said. “It’s not even big enough to be called a farm, but it’s the perfect size for me.”

Her land may be small, but it still requires large amounts of work. Montgomery’s daily chores include letting her dogs out of the house, checking that the horses are in the barn and then feeding them. And these are only the tasks that must be done before the sun comes up.

“Every morning, I leave and it’s still dark outside,” Montgomery said. “I’m out the door between 5 and 5:30 a.m. then it’s on to my other job, my main job, at school.”

Some of Montgomery’s responsibilities remain consistent throughout the year, but many vary by the season. In the spring and summer, she spends the majority of her free time on her tractor, mowing her yard. But even in the sweltering heat, she prefers her summer chores to the challenges of owning large animals in the winter.

“The worst part is getting [the horses] water in the winter,” Montgomery said. “You just can’t do it without getting wet. And even if it’s freezing outside, you still have to do it. You have to take your gloves off, so your hands get all wet and cold, and it just isn’t pleasant at all.”

Montgomery lives in Elsberry, Missouri, a town with fewer residents than the total number of students and staff at Francis Howell North. Elsberry is located about 35 miles from St. Charles and St. Peters, and Montgomery says her daily commute is usually around one hour and 40 minutes round-trip.

“[the commute] is long, but it actually doesn’t bother me,” Montgomery said. “I get to listen to NPR both ways, and I even get ideas for my classes.”

Students often seem to forget that their teachers have lives outside of school, but Montgomery’s life is different from those of most other teachers.

Donna Malkmus, chemistry teacher at FHN, is a friend of Montgomery’s and has visited her farm before, seeing first hand all of the responsibilities and joys of Montgomery’s life outside of school.

“I don’t know how she does it all,” Malkmus said. “But she has such a love for her animals that all this work doesn’t make much of a difference. [Her responsibilities] are worth it because she really loves her animals.”

Although the tasks can be strenuous and repetitive, Montgomery finds her routine very rewarding.

“I don’t like the chores, but I don’t really mind them either,” Montgomery said. “When I go home everyday, I see two magnificent horses run to greet me. Who else can say that?”