I personally feel guilty about how much paperwork and forms, emails, communications, and phone calls we forced onto the school staff and Principal Codiga.
Emily is enrolled at programs this summer and next academic year that require feedback from school. Principal Codiga always helped Emily, encouraged her, and got back to us even on her personal time. Mrs. Richardson and Principal Codiga would respond to us on weekends, early mornings, late nights. They really gave us the feeling that we were a family together and Emily really prospered from the extra and personal care from the administration and teachers.
Las Animas has staff that really cares for and loves the community. They have a mission of raising a successful generation. This shows in the progress of students and in the administration's caring behavior. You can do your work because you have to to make a living. Or you do it because it's your passion - and Animas has so many staff that are there because they really want to nurture the students.
Schools, administration, teachers are all underfunded in general. They could have many good reasons to ignore us. They could have waited until they had time at work. Honestly, there's nothing we could do to force anyone. They already had too much on their hands. Instead, they were patient with us and always went over and beyond to help.
Every time another form had to be signed, I thought, "Oh no, I have to bother Mrs. Monica and Principal Codiga again."
We actually started out having another 2 schools help with forms (so three could take on the weight of the paperwork), but the other institutions rejected helping further due to red tape / bureaucratic reasons. Or the Summer and Fall programs specifically asked for Las Animas info. So everything fell on Principal Codiga to help Emily and she really did. The Principal also took many opportunities to encourage Emily on extra-curricular pursuits. She took interest in Emily's successes and this was incredible motivation for Emily.
Mrs. Richardson is amazing at communication and feedback, getting back to both parents and students. She arranged for her class to have extra games, coordinated with Holiday Drives for material for students. Despite how busy she was, she took time to contact and thank every donor that gave resources to help her class. She even shared extra material with other classes.
Emily's teacher taking her personal time to thank the community helped me so much because I met all the people who donated. Getting a thank you from the teacher herself meant so much to the community, and encourages them to donate more to help kids year after year.
Mrs. Richardson also helped so much with aiding parents to become volunteers, so the students could have more positive parents around to help them or have fieldtrips, dances, celebrations, etc.
What Emily's mom and I really appreciate about Mrs. Richardson is that Emily was often ambitious with her academic work. Instead of discouraging her or saying something was too hard or difficult, she encouraged Emily to try. When she succeeded, she congratulated Emily. When Emily failed, she never had the attitude like "I told you so." Mrs. Richardson was always positive and Emily has left Las Animas with confidence and a willingness to both try and fail.
I'm a believer that success does not occur without failure. Thank you to Mrs. Monica, Mrs. Hortencia, Mrs. Isabella, and so many other administrators and teachers whom I have a hard time remembering their names. (I have documented brain damage / injuries - so I have issues with memory). If I forgot to mention your name here - please contact me.
Thank you Las Animas
To the District: You need to give the staff I mentioned raises. If you have teachers and a principal that have the heart to spend their personal time getting back to parents, studying and signing extra paperwork, looking into how they can help, fundraising or coordinating donation drives, being positive to students - you pay them enough to stick around. Otherwise, the school loses irreplaceable resources. You need to fight to get teachers and admin the pay they deserve. It's your responsibility and you do it before they look to other careers or schools. read more