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Teacher librarians instill love of reading
The teacher-librarian position is a unique one in Bethel. While many school districts have librarians who split time between buildings, Lisa Steudel, teacher-librarian at Katherine G. Johnson Elementary said our district knows the importance of the position.
“Of all the districts around us, we’re the only district that has an elementary librarian full time in each of our elementary schools,” she said. -
From the courtroom to the classroom
Prior to joining Spanaway Lake High School as a Family Resource Coordinator earlier this year, Trina Hall spent nearly two decades working in the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office as a crime victim advocate.
She described that role as being a tour guide through the criminal justice process, which she said can be confusing and time consuming for victims of crimes and witnesses.
“The prosecuting attorneys represent the State of Washington. The defense attorneys represent the defendant. So a lot of times, the victims and witnesses didn’t really know what was going on, so I kept them informed throughout the entire process,” she said.
She was proud of the work she did over those years, but was ready for a challenge and decided to take on a new role at SLHS. Much like her position with Pierce County, Hall’s new job as a Family Resource Coordinator is all about helping people in need.
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Help us celebrate National Principals Month
October is National Principals Month, and we’re taking some time to celebrate the amazing men and women who lead our schools -- women like Spanaway Lake High School’s Dr. Susie Askew.
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Behavior Task Force: 'It takes a village'
With 28 different schools covering a wide geographic area, student discipline can look different from building to building. That’s why administrators and teachers work together at the district level to discuss discipline and behavior issues and how they can support the schools, teachers, and staff as they deal with those throughout the year.
“We have a great group of teachers that we work with, and administrators, who sit on that Behavior Task Force,” said Chad Honig, Executive Director of Secondary Schools.
“The reality is there’s some universal concepts that are important for every building,” said Kelly Boynton, Executive Director of Elementary Schools. He said one example is expectations for the common areas in each school, like hallways and lunchrooms.
“When they’re clear on expected behaviors, both students and teachers, it’s easier to be preventive or proactive in pre-teaching behaviors and redirecting the students,” said Honig. “So it’s really important for teachers to have input.”
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