Episode 16: Grateful District Leadership

November 24th, 2023 /
Shauna Sprunger /

Sup with the Sup

00:00 / 18:19

Welcome to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up with the Sup podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. I hope that you have all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have had a chance to relax a little bit. For our episode this week, I was joined by our district leadership team. They each took a minute to share their gratitude for the people and important work happening across Provo City School District.

But before we hear from them, let’s go over our updates.

Prepare to spread holiday cheer with Tempview High School’s Sub for Santa program. Starting after Thanksgiving break on November 27th, 2023, and continuing through winter break until January 3rd, 2024. Timfew is teaming up with the United Way and the Food and Care Coalition to support families in our district. Whether you want to donate new gifts, contribute cash, or find more ways to join in, visit timpviewsubforsanta.weebly.com and make this season extra special for those in need.
A reminder that the contest for students to design a Find Your Swing pin is officially here. Students can submit their best artwork representing the Find Your Swing theme from the book The Boys in the Boat for a chance to have their design become the pin. Artwork can be turned into their school’s main office by Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, and the winner will receive a $100 gift card from the superintendent.
The next school board meeting will be a study session and business meeting on Tuesday, November 28th. Study sessions are held in boardroom one at the district office and business meetings take place in the professional development center. Both meetings are open to the public and public comment is welcomed at the business meeting. The study session will begin at 4 o’clock p.m. and the business meeting will begin at 5:50 p.m.
Look for the weekly video cast from me every Friday. In this short video, I provide important information and updates about work happening throughout the district.

And now let’s hear from our district leadership team as they tell us what they are grateful for about working in Provo City School District.

Jason Cox: Hi there. My name is Jason Cox. I’m Deputy Superintendent of Provo City School District and I have been lucky to be a part of Provo City School District for quite some time, uh, being a teacher and a principal here in the school district. And at this time of year, when we get the opportunity to share our gratitude for those that we work with and for many things around us, I wanted to take a minute and be able to say thank you to our employees, all of our employees, for the work that they do for the families here in Provo and for the students.

And with that, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to our two associations who represent all of our employees. They take a lot of time to care for the different employee groups and to come and represent them well here in Provo City School District. And I appreciate the fact that as a city school district, we get to know each other fairly well, and we work together in tandem to try to create a good, positive opportunity for our employees here in Provo.

And so I wanted to just take this chance to say thank you to them. Our two associations are represented by Christy Giblon and Anthony Lugo. Christy is the president of our teachers association and Anthony is the president of our classified association. And I appreciate the work that they do for each of their groups representing the employees in those groups.

Thank you.

Darrell Jensen: Hey everyone, I’m Darrell Jensen. I’m the Assistant Superintendent here in Provo City School District over secondary education, and I’m new to this district. There are so many things that I’m thankful for. As I’ve entered this district, I’m thankful for a lot of the educators in this district. It’s a tireless job they have and a task of educating the students in this community, and I appreciate the hard work and effort that they’re putting in. Everywhere I go, people are reaching out and making me feel welcome and that’s been very helpful for me as I’ve entered this new position.

I really appreciate the principals and their leadership and the guidance that they have for their teachers, but more importantly, the care that they have for the students in this community and making sure that not only are they safe, but they’re getting the best education possible.

I appreciate the support of parents. I’ve noticed that in this district, parents are very supportive and are willing to collaborate and problem solve with school officials on what’s best for their student.

I’m especially grateful for students in this district and for their ability to care for one another. Nothing is more impressive to me than when I see students going out of their way to help make other students feel welcome and help them feel of value. I think it’s important that especially this time of year that we keep our eyes out for those students that might need a little extra friend. Or attention this time of year and make sure that we’re going out of our way to help them.

So once again, I appreciate all of you for helping me to be welcome and for everything you do for the students in the Provost City School District.

Doug Finch: I’m Doug Finch and I’m the Assistant Superintendent over Student and Family Services. I have enjoyed a wonderful career of working in classrooms and in schools, both as a teacher and as a school administrator. And now in this role, it is a really great opportunity for me to work with wonderful people who serve students and families every day. I think particularly about those who keep our schools safe and healthy and secure. What an important thing for us each day when we come to work and to school. I think of our school resource officers who are there willing and ready to help, but also see the need for occasionally taking kids fishing at a cops and bobbers activity.

I think of social workers who are there in a crisis when someone’s really Having a very difficult time managing their emotions or their well being, but I’m also seeing them having fun activities with the Kindness Club and doing the things that matter to us every day to create a great atmosphere in our schools.

I love our school counselors who also are there when someone’s having a hard day, but also willing to meet with every student in their school and talk about what their career path is and what keeps them feeling healthy every day. I also love the fact that we have nurses who are helping people when they need to come to the health clerk’s office and to get some assistance with how they’re feeling. But also these are the same individuals who notice that some people need help getting eyeglasses and are willing to put together a great fundraiser and an event that allows students to get eyeglasses that they haven’t had in the past and it just really opens up their whole world to see.

I’m grateful for a number of other staff members who support students every day, and it’s a real benefit for me as a school district employee to see how we can make a difference. We truly try and live up to the motto of Provo City, “Welcome Home”, and we treat each other in a way that includes a feeling of belonging and inclusion that makes it really a great delight to work here in Provo.

Anne-Marie Harrison: Hello, I’m Anne-Marie Harrison. I’m the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in Provo City School District. I’m also a former student, teacher, principal, and a current district office employee. It was when I was a principal at Sunset View Elementary years ago that I really learned how many unique people it takes to run a school.

From the custodian doing snow removal before we all got to work, to the lunch and child nutrition workers having the kitchen bustling with breakfast and lunch preparation, to the secretary answering the many calls from parents each morning. If even one of these people was gone, it could make people’s lives really tough.

I remember filling in several times in jobs I really didn’t know how to do and all of that was just to get a building opened. When school started and the bus drivers dropped off the kids and parents dropped off theirs in a tightly scheduled time requiring a lot of coordination – teachers. Para professionals, facilitators and title one directors were all humming ready to meet and address the many needs of kids coming to school. I realized then what an incredible system a school was, how every part was needed, and each person needed to collaborate with the others to make the system run smoothly.

When even one person was missing, it was absolutely noticed. So often, everyone cooperated so well, and it did feel like an engine humming. I’m so grateful for every member of Provo City School District’s team. I enjoy working with you. visiting your schools and seeing the amazing things you’re doing together.

I love working together with you and please know of my deep appreciation for each one of you.

Jarod Sites: My name is Jarod Sites and I’m the Assistant Superintendent over Elementary Schools here in the Provo City School District. I wanted to take a minute and thank two special groups of people for all the work that they do in our community and especially in our schools, our building principals and administrators who work tirelessly to support all of the activities and interactions and challenges that face our schools on a daily basis. And I particularly want to share my gratitude for our parent groups, for the volunteers, for parents at home who provide support and those quiet commitments that they provide to our schools.

Our PTAs, our PTOs, our school community councils, and other volunteers provide so much support for our teachers. They support our students, they support the goals that we have in our school district, they advocate for so many important issues, and overall they’re advocates in our community. And to our parents who prepare and bring their students to our schools every single day and who trust in our system and support our teachers, this is such a great work and it’s so appreciated and often overlooked that for the total number of days that a parent wakes up their child and provides a lunch and gets them to and from school, from their kindergarten through 12th grade experience, when you look at it, it’s such a great level of commitment, not just to being a parent, but towards our community.

And again. I just want to provide this shout out to our principals and to our parents for all the things that they do in our communities.

Derek Anderson: My name is Derek Anderson. I’m the Business Administrator here at the school district. I always really enjoy this time of year because it requires a lot of reflection.

It’s something that we even do as part of my family. We have what’s called the thankful pumpkin that we sit down every night at dinner and we talk about what we’re thankful for. I’m really happy that we’re doing something like this for our district because I don’t think enough people get told how much they’re appreciated.

And so I’d like to thank just our entire operations side of this district. You know, from transportation, child nutrition, maintenance and custodial, finance, technology. You. all keep this district running. There are many times I’ve, uh, received calls late at night from either somebody in custodial or a maintenance individual about one of the schools going down or, uh, backing up of our sewer system that just recently happened.

And they do whatever it takes to get that school back up and running and always do it with a smile. And our technology department, just really going the extra mile to help ensure that, uh, Timpview would be ready to open up.

And our, our transportation department, getting those kids to and from school and dealing with the, the challenges that occurs due to the inclement weather.

Our child nutrition department and ensuring that those kids are, are fed and that no kid goes hungry. Looking for additional ways that we can cover the cost of the meals for kids that may not be on fee waiver, but still need to be able to eat.

And our finance department, all the work that they’ve done to help ensure the numbers are accurate and present the information that is understandable to the users of our financials, because management makes decisions all based off of what the numbers are. And these departments are the unsung heroes behind the scenes that help support the education side in making it run smoothly. And so, I’d like to thank them because I just know that they may not have had enough or is not brought up enough and nobody’s ever brought up enough in terms of just being appreciative for the work that you’re hired to do.

They do it every single day. with a smile on their face and deal with a lot of difficult situations that not everybody knows about. And so thank you for who you are and the smiles that you have on your face when you come to work. So I appreciate all of you.

Caleb Price: My name is Caleb Price. I am the Director of Communications for Provo City School District. And I wanted to take a few minutes just to thank community members for their support. There are a lot of people in our community that take time out of their days to volunteer or be part of organizations such as PTA, PTO, community councils, groups that are helping to support our students and our schools in whatever ways that they can, even though it is taking time out of their schedules to do so.

There are a couple of groups that I interact with more in my role that I wanted to highlight. One is the Foundation. Our foundation works every year to raise money for our students and our schools. They put on numerous events throughout the year. Every dollar that they raise at these events goes back to, to our schools and our students in after school programs or teacher grants, scholarships and other ways that they can support what’s going on in our schools. And so I wanted to thank them for the time that they take out of their schedules and out of their daily lives to put on these events and to work and to help our students and our schools in the ways that they can.

The other group I wanted to mention was our school board. Our school board works countless hours every day, every week, every school year to support our students and support our schools in the ways that they can. And as you sit and watch them work, you listen to the meetings and the discussions that they have, it’s clear that every decision that they are making is made with the intent to help our students have the best educational experience they possibly can as well as to help our employees have the best possible work environment and work experience that they can have. And the amount of time that they spend to do that deserves our gratitude and I wanted to thank them.

Another group I wanted to thank and recognize is our district leadership. Our superintendent and our assistant superintendents. I’m in a unique position where I get to work with them pretty closely on a day to day basis. And I sit in meetings and I listen to them make decisions and have discussions, and just like the school board, everything that they’re doing is being done with the intent to help our students and to help our employees have the best possible experience that they can have in our district.

It’s a job that requires a lot of time. There are multiple times where it’s after hours or on weekends, at nights, on holidays, where these people have to take time out of whatever they’re doing to address what’s going on, and they do it because they care about the students, they care about the employees, and they care about the community in Provo and the education that’s happening here.

So I want to take a minute to thank those groups and recognize them for the work that they do. Just say thank you.

Wendy Dau: My name is Wendy Dau. I am the Superintendent of Provo City School District. What I am really grateful for at this time of Thanksgiving as an employee of Provo City School District is our teachers.

I have had the opportunity to go into every school in our district to see teachers at work in their classrooms, to see the interactions that they have with students and just recognizing what a difference they make to so many kids every single day. I am so grateful that our students have the opportunity to have such influential and competent and excellent educators in their lives that just makes such a difference.

We know that teachers are the one individual in a school system that generates the greatest amount of success, and I just don’t think they get the appreciation they deserve, and so at this time of year, I just want to express my utmost gratitude for all of the effort they put forth, for the time they put in, the many, many hours, the creative ways in which they try to lesson plan, and just make things great.

For their kids each and every day when they walk through their classroom door.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of What’s up with the Sup. As always, all episodes will be available wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu.

Next week, I will be joined by Cassidy Baker, the student government advisor at Timpview High School, as well as two members of Timpview’s student government, Caleb Ngatuvai and Sarah Lee. We will be discussing the Sub for Santa program that Timpview runs every year around the holidays. Please be sure to tune in next week. Have a great weekend, everyone.