STUDENTS SHADOW ADMINISTRATORS
Day offers an inside look at how district runs
Thompson School District students shadowed Superintendent Marc Schaffer and members of his cabinet Wednesday, offering them a glimpse into the inner workings of the school district while also giving officials like Schaffer a chance to hear students’ feedback and to, in Schaffer’s words, reflect on what can sometimes become routine.
“So often, I just move from one meeting, one activity to the next,” Schaffer said Wednesday. “This was far more purposeful. I took the time to explain the ‘why’ behind things. Why is this important, why does this matter? Really, it just reminds me that everything we do here in the Thompson School District is in service to students.”
Five officials in the Thompson School District were shadowed by students between fifth and 12th grades Wednesday, including Schaffer, Chief Operations Officer Todd Piccone, Chief Academic Officer Melissa Schneider, Chief Communications Officer Michael Hausmann and Chief Technology Officer Kelly Sain.
Much of the appeal, according to students, was seeing the inner workings of the district, especially elements of it that might not be immediately apparent.
“We got to see the inner workings, behind the scenes of like, transportation and nutrition services,” said Krista Herley, a seventh grader at Peakview K-8 School. “I learned that being a school bus driver is a lot harder than it actually looks like. There’s a lot of things that go into it, you know, driving, they have to get functions checked with the wheels and stuff, and you have to do it every single day. I got to see the underside of a school bus. Never seen that before, that was great.”
Herley knew Schaffer, who she was shadowing Wednesday, prior to the day she spent with him. Schaffer’s wife was Herley’s school counselor at Monroe Elementary School, now closed.
“He does everything every day, he’s funny, he knows about everything, it’s crazy,” Herley said of the superintendent.
The students shadowing Schaffer shared breakfast with the superintendent, as well as the mayors of Loveland and Berthoud at First Watch in Loveland, where Audrey Roth, an eighth grader at Turner Middle School, ordered avocado toast and over-easy eggs.
“My takeaway is that there’s way more people involved in making a school district function than I thought,” Roth said. “A lot more facilities, a lot more time and effort put into that type of stuff. A lot more things go into making a school district happen than I ever thought there would be.”