WEBVTT

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I have a belief that they can do whatever

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they want to do

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let's

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give

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them opportunity to be able to grow their

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skills to have those opportunities

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even for that future day to

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create a beautiful future for them our

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goal is to educate children and

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help families is just so refreshing

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and gives a sense of

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purpose and meaning to the work every day

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you'll learn that we offer some pretty

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extensive special ed services

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we offer uh some

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pretty important professional development uh

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for the rural

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school districts and their staffs

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and we also offer some Financial uh

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support to all our

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districts and uh our

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goal and our major uh

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item in our actually

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in our vision statement is the word

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agility and uh as

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a boss he's having the agility to

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adjust uh to the different

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things in education

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special education I often talk

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about what is the spirit of the law

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because there are many many laws and

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uh we do not get it perfect on

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a single day because there's

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so much but the spirit of the law

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is to ensure that there is access for

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kids and that their

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testing the opportunities that other students

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have opportunities for and so

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the the work in

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special education is so meaningful and

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purposeful

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when you hear each person's story

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why they are here at

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Centennial boses it is always because of

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kids now it may take a little bit

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of a different um flavor

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so for example I have a physical

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therapist that says I come to work

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so that kids can walk

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wow that sounds pretty

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powerful to me we continue to make

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progress in all of these indicators

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that we're um

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reviewed and um

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um kids keep making progress we're

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closing the achievement Gap and that's the big celebration

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is that kids with

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disabilities are closing the achievement Gap

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that's very rare to

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be able to find that happening

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um across schools and we're doing it

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so yeah there's a lot to

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celebrate in special

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ed here Dr

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seal always talks about us being a service organization and

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that's what we are we are here to help our

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are uh districts out and big

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or small and close or

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far it doesn't matter we'll make

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sure that we get uh the assistance

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still in the best way we can when

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you have worked

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so hard persevered through

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so many different obstacles

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and yet you're here on this stage way

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to go

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fill the gaps where

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our districts need that additional

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support uh through grant

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writing through the alternative high schools and

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our alternative high schools serve

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a valuable role for small districts

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that can't afford to do their alternative

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programs for students we have a

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forum the teachers

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here are like really really helpful and

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even when I'm not doing work

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you know they're always they're always

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on my case they're always nagging me they're always which

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is not a bad thing I mean I I'm

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not complaining it it helps me get my work done and

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you know I'm grateful I'm

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grateful for that it's

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for sure life

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changing like definitely like it's much more it's it's

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all really about you

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the the whole idea and concept

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is to be sure that they are successful that

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they can have the opportunity to

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graduate with a diploma and

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be productive uh in the workplace

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many go on to

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new secondary post-secondary education

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opportunities others

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go right into the workforce and

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uh the last few years have

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been some of our largest graduating classes

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for our alternative camp

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and that's a part of our in

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Innovative ed services that we offer to

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districts uh that department alone

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offers help with alternative

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teacher licensing as well as alternative

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principal licensing

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provides a support to the districts

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when it's hard to find teachers

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and instructors uh that

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that program is vital it's been recognized

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as 1 of the top ones in

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the state I love the

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aspect and I tell people this all the time if I could just

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focus my entire job on helping our districts

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that's why I show up to work um

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I don't I'm partially retired

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and I'm still

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here because I love what I do

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that aspect of being able to assist

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people uh that I

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know are working their rear ends off to

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try to help students and families out um

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we're all in this together and

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I got into public at 36 years ago

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for the sole purpose of trying to make

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the difference of people's lives we have

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probably the largest

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piece of federal programs in the state of Colorado

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we serve well over 2,000

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students we go all

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the way out to the Kansas and

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Nebraska borders and uh

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Federal programs provide a

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great support to the agricultural

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workers and their students I

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believe our program is

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important still because there is

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so much work to do um

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and a supplemental way

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and I wish we didn't have

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to exist you know yet

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there is

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such a huge uh need

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for supplemental services not

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only instructional

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services but Support Services

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when you talk about

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referrals navigating

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school system uh navigating

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other resources

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in

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communities where families

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have recently arrived

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um I believe our program

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makes a huge difference ensuring

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that students feel like

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they belong in that

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space in that setting and

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also families feel that

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they have supports and they're not alone

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when they arrived to a new school

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district or a new

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state and at

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times they get so discouraged because

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so here I am on moving so uh

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for highly mobile students

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it is very important to have that extra support our

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role is just vital

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to ensure

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that uh students don't

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fall through the cracks because of the interruption

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in their education

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I think that really fills my

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cup every every year every summer

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when I get to celebrate with families

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with high school students um

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accomplishing such

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a big uh mile

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all right I just uh graduating

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and learning about post-secondary plans

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and also here in testimonies from

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parents and students on how

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impactful um

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our staff

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our staff has been in their uh

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high school and their high school students

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or middle school students even so

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I found out about being valid Victorian and

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I was already like super pumped and then the next

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morning was when my letter got there so

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I just like felt like I was flying for a

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while yeah my mom uh my mom

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was there when I opened the letter that morning and yeah I

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mean she was she started crying right away and

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um yeah they were they were all very

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happy I mean my sister was

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super excited for me you know my

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sister has been like No 1 who's like been with me through

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most of the process so when

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I got to tell her that I got it it was just

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kind of unreal again

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so when we

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have those opportunities to celebrate it

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it just is very refreshing and

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it reminds me um why

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why we do what we do and even though

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there are many challenges throughout the year

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it is really worth it at the end of the day and

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we don't realize the impact we're

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having on Children and

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Families until

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later on perhaps even after a graduation

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I say the helper

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the customer service attitude because that's really the

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environment we're in our

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financial department is uh able

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and has uh offered services

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to smaller districts uh

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in payroll and some other fight

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Financial things we've helped other bosies at

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times when they've needed help

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for in the financial area and

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that's been a strong point of this

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boses has been our financial department

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making sure that we're V

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that we can continue

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and carry out the

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mission of our our bosis

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here my

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favorite part about working for aosis is

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that every single school year I get to see the

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impact that every single 1 of our departments has

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on our districts and their students and

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with my role specifically with marketing

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and Communications I feel incredibly

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privileged to be able to have the job

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of telling the stories of

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our districts and their students and staff

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I get to essentially document the

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best parts of their school year

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and celebrate with them and their Community

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it makes me just feel really good and it's

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good to have a job where you feel

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feel like you were making an impact we're the

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people behind curtains so to speak and

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just get opportunities and resources and

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different um

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experiences

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for kids that might not always

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be there so that's our role as folks use

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is to serve our district so they can serve their kids

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the way that I look at it is that at

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the end of the day we are just people

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helping

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other people who believe in public education

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and we are just

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supporting them in the ways that they need and giving

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them resources everyone who works in public

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Ed can understand how important that is

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my focus is about creating a

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beautiful day for the children today so that they

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you have a beautiful future tomorrow but

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it's about our nation

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it's about our country it's about our world to

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also have a beautiful future

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and we're building up and that next generation and

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for them to be able to

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to learn resilience and grit and perseverance

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those are the things that we're going

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to need in our future and so

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you know just important for us to

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be here to encourage that development

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well public education is the best

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bone in this country if we do

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not support and continue to support

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public education uh

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I'm not

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sure where the future will lead us if we do

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not have a strong public education

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system in terms of teaching and

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people learning and um

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and being well-rounded

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citizens of this country