HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the 2013-14 school year winding down, three Hutchinson Public Schools staff members have been honored with district honors.
Mel Dower has been named Classified Employee of the Year. Tobie Henline and Ashleigh Vieyra have been nominated as the district’s entries in the Kansas Teacher of the Year Competition.
Still to be named are the Davis Teachers of the Year. The Davis Foundation will formally announce the finalists and the winners at the district’s back-to-school convocation on Aug. 7.
Just before the first Dower child began walking the halls of Hutchinson High School, Mel Dower started subbing for the district.
Dower and her husband, Tad, have four children who attended – and graduated from – Hutch High. After working three years as a substitute for the district, she started full time as a media assistant at the high school in the summer of 2002. She moved to the main office in June 2003.
What is the best part of her job? The students. While she tends to work one-on-one with students in her day job as HHS secretary, or in small groups as the junior varsity girls’ tennis coach, she knows what she does makes a difference, often in unexpected ways.
“I love the kids,” she said. “I love the atmosphere at HHS. While I don’t teach kids or work with large groups, I still make contact with students.”
For a few students, the sometimes crowded hallways can be a bit overwhelming. She’ll see some of those students step into the main HHS office for just a bit. She’ll talk with them, giving them just a moment to regroup.
Some of her work can have an impact on students’ future financial lives. Since she is a point person for the electronic student management system, she gets many requests for information that students need for scholarship applications.
Dower’s workday is not a standard 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Instead, she arrives at work at 6 a.m. Her first job of the day is to place substitute teachers in the classrooms. She also gets everything ready for those subs, being the friendly voice of HHS on the phone as she calls them before sunrise to be a substitute.
She also provides secretarial support for Ronn Roehm, Hutch High principal, who normally is on duty by the time she arrives at 6 a.m.
The other finalists for Classified Employee of the Year for 2013-14 are Chris Weiser, Career and Technical Education Academy; Reginald Fredericks, Avenue A; Jamie Brown, Administration Center; Patty Chappell, McCandless; Candy Reeves, Early Head Start; Shirley Foust, Hutchinson High School; Christina Jackson, Wiley; Hazel Brott, Faris; Robin Getting, Graber; and Dee Romero, Administration Center.
Then for the past decade, Tobie Henline has fulfilled a job at Hutchinson High that combines multiple skills – from making sawdust fly to providing voice coaching to thespians and vocalists.
Tobie is the director of theater at HHS, a role she has held since 2003. She held a similar post at Eureka for two years – her first job after graduating from Southwestern College at Winfield.
“The thing that drives me the most is I enjoy the students,” she said. “The students are fun to be around. It is fun when they get it and to see the passion they are developing.”
As theater director, her job often involves mess – whether that mess involves cutting boards for a set or helping a student translate Shakespearean English into 21st Century thinking.
Good education, she says, is just like that – often messy.
“Learning is messy,” she said. “It’s OK to fail. The big thing is to try. If you fail, dust yourself off and try again. The kids who do that, you it’s quite impressive to see the growth.”
Theater allows Tobie to work with students with a wide range of skills and interests. While some students literally love the spotlight of being on stage, other students are far more comfortable with running the spotlight, building the set, sewing the costume or creating the special effects.
“That shy kid, we’ve got a place for him.”
By day, Ashleigh Vieyra works in a room filled with little people. By night, she’s surrounded by students who are as tall as she is. By day, she teaches third grade at Wiley Elementary School. Her afternoons and many evenings are spent as HHS cheer squad coach
And she likes it that way.
“It gives me the best of both worlds,” Vieyra said. “My third graders are independent, but they need me. The come in as little kids but leave as individuals. They grow so much in third grade.
“The high school girls have to want to be there. It’s hard work. I have high expectations for them in school and in the community.”
Ashleigh came home to work. She attended grade school a few blocks away at Morgan Elementary and was the last class of Liberty Lancers (2000) before graduating from HHS in 2004. One of her chosen activities throughout school was being on the cheer squad.
After graduating from Wichita State in December 2008, Ashleigh joined the Wiley staff as a math and reading support teacher in January 2009. She got her own classroom – third grade – in August 2009.
She’s fortunate. Her mentor works at Wiley – and he also happens to be her father-in-law.
“I can go to him (Wiley first grade teacher Martin Vieyra) for advice, assistance and support,” she said. “He taught third grade for a long time. He is my rock; he is my cheerleader here.”