Adult voices
Jessie Zink, coordinator of gifted services/9-12 curriculum specialist
What is your favorite thing about the Northmont community? Northmont is such a tightly knit, supportive community. There is a strong sense of community pride and great connections and support between the community and the schools. What is the biggest challenge
of your job? Because I provide support for students and teachers from grades K to 12, it can be very challenging to balance all the different projects I have going on at one time. One of the greatest challenges for our state and district is making sure we have the correct supports in place to ensure that all our seniors have met the state requirements for graduation. What would you like to tell
people about your work? Most people do not really know what I do when I tell them that I work in curriculum. I am very fortunate to be able to support teachers in their professional growth. Teachers have such a demanding job; I want to do everything I can to help them. What are you most proud of
professionally? In the past five years, we have worked hard to transform our gifted services at Northmont. We have expanded our support for gifted students to all buildings, and redesigned our curriculum to make it relevant for the world that our students will be graduating into.
Pamela Pearson, food service director
What does your job entail?
Serving breakfast and lunch to as many students as possible.
Reaching out to parents who may need assistance and making them feel comfortable that their students will not be identified as free/reduced, but providing them with a meal.
Serving students nutritional food that meets all the mandates and is accepted by the students.
Making sure the food service program remains financially selfsupporting.
List some joys you experience in your position:
Being around the students and helping them when needed Having former students come thank you for taking care of them while they were in school
Everyone who works at Northmont has the students as their number one priority. It is not just a job, but a very caring environment.
What are the biggest changes
in the last five years? The nutritional part with the introduction of Smart Snacks. All a la carte items must meet guidelines in order to be offered to students. All grains must be whole grains. Our milk is fat-free or low fat. There are sodium and calorie restrictions and trans-fats have been eliminated. Students are required to select a fruit or vegetable as part of a reimbursable meal. All of these changes made a big change to our menus. Finding equivalents to students’ favorite food items that meet all the requirements and taste good are challenging.