Keisha Bullard was a student when one of her parents passed away. She recalls how her counsellor got her through the experience: A painful time that helped inspire her to her current position at Central Canyon Elementary school.
As such, she shoulders responsibilities that help students function: food to get through the day, and even backpacks of food for the weekend. "Just to kind of take off that stress they might have of, 'where am I going to get my supplies?"
She'll even give an alarm clock to kids who don't have one at home... or whose parents are out working early in the day and are not present to wake them for school. Backpacks filled with the basics -- paper, pens, notebooks, scissors. All donated.
Even the food pantry at the school supports other nearby schools.
Two weeks before parents arrive, she provides them with worksheets that help give new habits and skills to new students: A guide to knowing the school's name, the teacher's name, and raising their hands to answer a question or request attention. Templates to practice cutting with scissors, or copying the alphabet or writing numbers, perhaps for the first time.
And at any time, a parent can come into the school to request a tour and meet the administration and teachers.
And also at any time, the public can donate canned or packaged foods, or bulk school supplies, including sturdy backpacks that won't rip apart -- here.
