During each month's school board meeting, Uinta 4's Board of Trustees takes time to recognize extraordinary, demonstrated success. These successes will come from a variety of areas but, in general, will be focused on achievements that have truly benefitted our students. This is not an “employee of the month” program and it is not an “everyone wins a trophy” program. Rather, it is a merit-based attempt to recognize those staff members who have truly demonstrated excellence. Therefore, some staff members might get recognized more than once each year and some staff members might never get recognized.
October is National Principal's Month and the entire district would like to thank our administrative team for their leadership and hard work. We benefit as a community, district, and at the school and classroom level from the work that you do every day. We are deeply grateful for your leadership, dedication, and tireless(?) hard work. The relationships you build with staff, families, and students create a foundation of trust and that makes our schools stronger. Most importantly, an administrator's unwavering focus on students ensures that every decision is centered on their safety, growth, and success. Your commitment to positive relationships helps build a foundation for lifelong learning for our students and staff. Thank you for the difference you make every day.
September's spotlight shines on district Maintenance Supervisor Bob Alvis. In his 12 years in our district, Bob has provided real leadership in helping the district navigate some difficult and unique situations. He not only has a broad knowledge of building and maintenance, but a specific knowledge of electrical systems that has provided professional growth for our entire maintenance crew. He has done an excellent job of working to transition Monte Bernard into both his current role and his upcoming role of maintenance supervisor. Bob has also been a go to for us in our contracts and bidding process. Early in his career with us, Bob was vital in getting our new K8 building on line for our students and staff. Our thanks to Bob for his service to the district and we wish him well in his coming retirement.
UCSD #4 Special Education Appreciation Shout Outs! Case managers task paras Sommer Tysver and Kara Olson with contacting parents to schedule meetings. The design in this duty/responsibility allows the case managers to focus more of their time on providing services to their students. This arrangement is somewhat unique and really a testament to the quality of work that they both do. For case managers to entrust paras with this responsibility says a lot. I know how hard it is to coordinate with admin, teachers and parents to find times that work for meetings. I realize the stress involved in this duty and the patience they have to have, to do it well. I am continually impressed with the quality of our paras and Sommer and Kara are two are a perfect examples of this. Thank you, Sommer and Kara, for handling all of our demands with a warm, friendly smile and a calm, can-do attitude. We really appreciate the work you do!
MVHS would like to shine the spotlight on our school counselor, Stormy Hauf. Stormy has truly been a lifesaver for our school, and to her brand-new principal. Her ability to coordinate schedules, facilitate testing, plan and prepare for graduation, provide scholarship opportunities, dual and college course planning, provide whole school and community mental health training, and counsel students in difficult situations are just a few of her daily duties. Stormy knows every student in the building and provides a wealth of knowledge in aspects that make our building great. Stormy is thoughtful, smart, and dedicated to our students, staff and community; we are lucky to have her!
MVMS would like to shine the spotlight on Mr. Lym and Mrs. Moretti, our PE teachers, for coordinating our annual 8th grade hike to Alligator Lake. We're blessed as a school to be able to conduct a field trip using our close proximity to National Forests. It's a great opportunity for our students to enjoy our public lands and realize that physical activity can be accomplished outside of the gym. Students also used this trip to practice monitoring their heart rates throughout the hike. Thanks again to Dustin and Jess for keeping the tradition going.
MVE would like to show it's appreciation to Monique Hysell, a paraproffessional in our K-5, for coordinating our progress monitoring efforts in the elementary. Monique does a great job communicating with our grade level teachers and organizing the data to ensure we are able to monitor the growth of our students in academic areas of need. Our teachers and admin team benefit greatly from the work she does in this area. Most importantly, our students, and their academic growth is greatly influenced by the work she does, and the support she is able to give them. The work you do is greatly appreciated!
No surprise to anyone, we have some pretty capable bus drivers in our district! This month's Spotlight falls, once again, on the Uinta 4 Bus Rodeo Champions. This summer, our Transportation department leaders, Brian Deru and Carmen Erickson, took several drivers up to Casper for the Wyoming Pupil Transportation Association's mountain driver training and the annual bus rodeo. Carmen Erickson and Angie Pitts represented our district well with their driving skills by taking first place in the bus rodeo portion of the training. This is the first time that our district has actually won this event, and you should see the traveling trophy we now have, thanks to the WPTA and the amazing efforts of our school bus drivers.
MVHS would like to shine the spotlight on Jolene Schnackenburg and Clay Hysell. These two individuals do so much behind the scenes and without their help these last few weeks, high school registration would not have happened. Clay is our resident "techie" and he is there at a moment's notice whenever we're having issues. His knowledge is abundant and we are very lucky to have his expertise. Jolene is sifting through mountains of PowerSchool info to make sure we are on track with student and parent registration. Her skillset is made evident, especially when coordinating attendance, compliance requirements from the state and sticky situations sometimes we are put in with school activities. Their professionalism and skill sets aside, both of these folks are such wonderful humans and their kindness shines through with every interaction, we are so grateful to work alongside them.
This month's Spotlight is a thank you to Mountain View High School Media Paraeducator Kim Tait and Josh Camp, representing Fort Bridger Historical Society, for their work with high school teachers and students to help coordinate a cross-curricular project this past spring that was very well done by students and staff and allowed the high school students to interact with younger students from both of the other buildings.