After 20 years of working with cows, Rick Beal decided to take on a different animal: kindergarten students.
In his second year at Northeast Elementary School, Beal is one of seven full-time elementary male teachers out of 61 total — 11.5 percent — within the Rutland City public schools.
Statewide, men fill 13 percent of the full-time kindergarten to sixth-grade teaching positions.