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Episode 71: Happy Holidays!

Sup with the Sup
Sup with the Sup
Episode 71: Happy Holidays!
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Wendy Dau: Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up with the ‘Sup podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau, and this week’s podcast drops on our last day of school before heading off on our winter break. In this episode, we will hear from employees that work in our district office, and we ask them to share their favorite holiday tradition with us.

Maybe you’re kind of wondering who works in the district office. We have people who run curriculum. We have our communications team. We have our assistant superintendents over secondary and elementary. We have our front desk receptionists that welcome people and greet them and fingerprint you when you’ve got to come in for a job.

We have all of our financial people. There are so many people that work here that help. Our schools and our district to make everything run as smoothly as possible, and I think we sometimes forget how many hands and feet and brains all come together to support the education of our children. So I’m excited today to hear about all of their traditions and their favorite memories of Christmas.

It really helps us to get to know one another better and to really see what an incredible place Provo City School District really is. But before we get to know them a little bit better, here are our updates with everything you need to know when we return from winter break.

  • Students will return to school on Tuesday, January 7th. Teachers return on Monday, January 6th for a day of professional development and teacher planning.
  • The new Electronic Devices Policy goes into effect on Tuesday, January 7th, at all schools for joining us.
    • Please visit the district website or refer to the email that was sent to all parents for more information.
  • The next school board meeting will be a study session and business meeting on Tuesday, January 14th.
    • Please look for more information to be posted on the district website as we get closer to the date.
  • At the December 10th board meeting, the Board of Education approved a change to this year’s school calendar. This change means that the school year will now end on Wednesday, May 21st, which is two days earlier than originally planned.
    • This information has been emailed to all parents and has been posted on the district website and social media.
  • There are three new policies for review on our district website.
    • Go to provo. edu, click on Policies, Forms, and Documents, and you can click on Review Draft Policies here.
      • You will see a draft of policy 3118, which is about open enrollment, policy 3160, which is about student residency for those students who have parents that live out of state, and policy 4400, which is about assessment and state testing.
  • Continue watching for my weekly videocasts in your email every Monday. These videocasts provide one place for you to learn about important things happening across the district.

Wendy Dau: Before we start and hear from all of our district office employees about their favorite traditions of Christmas, I thought I would share a few of my own.

One is my dad was in the Tabernacle Choir all growing up. He was in the choir. He was a first tenor for 30 years. And I remember every Christmas going to Temple Square and listening with my mom. I was the youngest. Most of my siblings were already out of the house at that time. And my mom and I would go into the tabernacle and we would listen to the Christmas concert.

When that concert happened, that’s when Christmas started. It was just puts you in the mood, and just being so grateful that music was such an important part of our Lives and our household, and just all of the memories and then on Christmas Eve. My dad wouldn’t let us open any presents. We opened our presents on Christmas Eve because we’re Danish.

And so Europeans open their presents on Christmas Eve. You only open the presents from Santa on Christmas day. We had to sing Christmas carols around the tree. That’s a very common tradition in Scandinavian households. And so we would sing it. I just remember getting so frustrated sometimes that you had to wait to open your presents.

But it’s something that we still do today, and it’s something that’s really dear to my heart. So, I’m grateful for my dad and my mom and for providing all of these amazing memories and traditions for us that have continued even today. So, I’m looking forward to it.

Carrie Rawlins: So, this is Carrie Rawlins. I’m the Assistant Director in Student Services, and one of my favorite things that I have done for Christmas is on Christmas Eve, we went swimming in my brother’s pool in The very warm Lehi, Utah, and the pool was heated and steam was coming off the pool, and It was just so magical.

Rebecca Rogers: Hi, this is Rebecca Rogers. I’m an HR Director here at the district office. And one of my favorite holiday traditions has been a longstanding tradition. My family and I, we go to Southern Utah and cut our Christmas tree. And we also hike in Capitol Reef and it’s– we’ve been doing it ever since I can remember. It’s a really fun tradition.

Cheryl Taufer: This is Cheryl Taufer from Student Services, and the tradition that I had from the very beginning of our marriage up until we moved here to Utah was that my husband has been the Macy’s Santa in San Francisco, so every year we would go to San Francisco and he would be Santa and I would be his elf.

Liz Robles: My name is Liz Robles and I’m in Student Services.

For Christmas at our home, we love preparing an advent calendar for our kids. So it’s kind of fun to get them to open their daily present and see what they all got.

Jarod Sites: My name is Jarod Sites. I’m the Assistant Superintendent over Elementary Education and one of my favorite holiday traditions is just spending time with family and cooking together.

Julie Powell: My name is Julie Powell. I work at the district office. I work for Jarod Sites and Darrell Jensen, and my favorite Christmas tradition is spending time with my family and my grandchildren.

Annaleee Gianfelice: I’m Annalee Gianfelice. I work at the district as Accounts Payables. My favorite holiday is Christmas. Christmas tradition is– I don’t know– let’s do a Christmas Eve party with– with my Hispanic family. Asado, meat, all you can eat.

Diana Dean: My name is Diana Dean and I love to work with licensing for all of our teachers. My favorite holiday tradition at the district office is the door decorations, or the elf on the shelf. Anything we do together as a district office is wonderful. And I love to make bows and see people’s faces light up when they get to take one. Merry Christmas.

Boyd McAfee: My name is Boyd McAfee. I am an Assistant Director in the Human Resources Department. And my favorite holiday tradition is wearing my Sasquatch Santa sweater.

Liz Boardman, I do Payroll. And I think my favorite family tradition is It’s Christmas Eve, opening up pajamas with everybody, taking pictures, and playing games.

Chris Chilcoat: I’m Chris Chilcoat. I am Assistant Director over Special Education. This is my first year doing that, and one of my traditions was to actually dress up each day from Thanksgiving on until Christmas and just– just make the kids smile. Now I’m at the district I still do it, so that’s pretty cool.

One of my family traditions is that we get together for Christmas Eve, all the siblings, all on my side, and we sing carols and just enjoy each other’s company.

So it’s an awesome tradition. And then in the morning, we get up and we have breakfast. So we eat a big breakfast and then we clean everything up and then we open presents. So that’s one of our family traditions.

Melanie Shelley: My name’s Melanie Shelley. I work in the HR office and my favorite family tradition is getting together and having a big party with my family and reenacting the manger scene.

Catherine Miner: My name is Catherine Miner and I’m the Wellness Specialist here at the district. My favorite tradition is we go see the lights on Christmas Eve in our Christmas pajamas.

Woody Turnbeaugh: Woody Turnbeaugh, I’m the Purchasing / Finance Coordinator, and my favorite thing to do is go home to St. George to see the family.

Steve Canfield: Steve Canfield, I’m the Construction Coordinator for the district. My favorite tradition that we carry out is having the continuous weeks off that we get for Christmas.

Devyn Dayley: Devyn Dayley, I’m the Business Administrator, and my favorite tradition is spending time with my family and my new grandbaby.

Ricardo Ledesma: Hello, my name is Ricardo Ledesma. I’m an accountant, and I work for the Provo City School Business Department as an accountant and auditor. And my favorite Christmas tradition is meeting with my family and have a party– we have a big family. And a big tradition of having a party since 15th of November until the end of December. So we have huge party down there in Venezuela where I’m originally from. So, I’m so happy to be here and get used to the tradition of the United States, which I love.

Laura Zweifel: My name is Laura Zweifel and I work in the finance department. And my favorite tradition is to read The Christmas Story.

Erica Halford: Erica Halford. Benefits Specialist. My favorite tradition is spending time with my son.

Tiffany McCloud: Hi, I’m Tiffany McCloud, and I’m the District Cashier, and my favorite holiday tradition is on my birthday. It’s really close to the holidays, so we go out to dinner, and then we drive around to see Christmas lights.

Maria Medrano: Hi, my name is Maria Medrano and I work for the HR department as a Receptionist. And my tradition is all the family gets together, eat tamales and have ponche.

Maria Ledesma: Hello, my name is Maria. I work in payroll, and my tradition is to go to Phoenix and spend time in Christmas with my grandson.

Clay Bingham: Clay Bingham, CTE Director. And for my favorite holiday tradition is getting pajamas on Christmas Eve night with all my kids.

Tiffany Evans: Hi, I’m Tiffany Evans and I’m the District Title I and III Coordinator, and my favorite holiday tradition is playing Christmas minute to win it games with all our friends and cousins.

Ari Lecheminant: My name is Arie Lecheminant and I’m the District Title I and Title III Compliance Coordinator. My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas brunch at my parents.

Caleb Price: My name is Caleb Price. I’m the Director of Communications for the district, and my favorite holiday tradition is baking sugar cookies and frosting them with my kids.

Shauna Sprunger: Hi, my name is Shauna Sprunger and I am the Coordinator of Communications. And my favorite holiday tradition is to decorate the tree for my birthday, because my birthday is at the beginning of December.

Judy Rose: Hi, my name is Judy Rose. I’m the Director of Elementary Education, and one of my favorite holiday traditions comes on Christmas morning.

We make cinnamon rolls the night before. And when we get up in the morning, everyone can race downstairs and tear into their stockings. There’s no limitations on that. But then cinnamon rolls happen before we actually open Christmas presents. So it’s a lot of chaos right off and then some sugar and some delicious carbs, and then we all settle in and open presents.

Wendy Dau: Thank you everyone for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s Up With The ‘Sup. As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere 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 at provo.edu.

We will return with new episodes beginning on Friday, January 10th. Until then, I hope you have a great winter break and I wish everyone happy holidays and a Merry Christmas.

Spencer Tuinei
  • Communication Specialist
  • Spencer Tuinei
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