This past Friday morning, I grudgingly woke up at 5:00 a.m. in order to get to a training in Olympia about the fantastic, but sometimes elusive CONEVyT- the Mexican Government's program for continuing education for it's citizens, at home and abroad. I attended this training because I wanted to be able to offer support to the migrant districts in Western Washington who would like to implement access to this program for their families. Realizing that it took place during the last week of school for many districts, I didn't expect to see many familiar faces at the training... Boy was I in for a surprise....
Of course, there were the intrepid super stars from Burlington- Jill Peterson and Luis Lopez- both very excited to get CONEVyT started in their already-developed Family Resource Center with computers, internet access and childcare available every week to migrant families. I was excited to see them and very impressed that they found time in the end-of-school year mayhem to get to Olympia on a Friday. Then I looked around the room some more and spotted the FPD from Nooksack Valley- Kevin DeVere, poised to gather information and undeterred by the knowledge that the training was to take place in Spanish.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Nooksack Valley- it's way up north. Kevin was most likely leaving his house at 5:00am (when I was just waking up) in order to get to this training on time. Not only did he come from far away, but he had to leave his Elementary School (and by HIS, I do mean that he is the principal of the school). He also expected to have to miss his former elementary students' graduation from high school that evening (hopefully he made it since the training ended earlier than expected...) and he knew that he'd have to figure out how to understand the information that was to be presented in a language that he doesn't have a full handle on. Kevin makes things happen though, and this was important to him. So he got to the training, asked me to interpret for him and got to work.
The reason that I'm sharing all of this with you is that I feel like we all make sacrifices to do what's best for our migrant students and families and I think that Kevin DeVere is a great example of that spirit. During a break, I had the chance to ask Kevin what keeps him so motivated and dedicated to working with the Migrant Education Program with all of its requirements, Service Delivery Plans and grant processes. He explained to me that when he really looks into the eyes of the migrant students in his district, he needs to know that he is doing all that he can to make quality education possible for them.
I'm not going to pretend that Kevin is always easy to work with- sometimes he has us jumping around right and left to get him what he needs and he makes no apologies for demanding information- by a certain time, in English AND Spanish and in parent-friendly terms. And really, why should he apologize for asking for what our students and families need in order to improve migrant student acheivement? He makes us all work harder and better and for that I thank him (and so should you)! I just hope that Sylvia Mendoza (the equally incredible and dedicated home-visitor for Nooksack Valley) never leaves her position. They are a fabulous team!
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