Mill Valley News: How long have you been here in the Valley?

Brent Bechard: This is my fifth year at Mill Valley. Before that I was at Holton, the small three-A school, for four years.

MVN: What are you moving on to?

BB: Shawnee Mission School District. I’ll be the district athletic director. So I will oversee the five high schools and five middle schools, kind of be a resource at the district office for them, and I will also be the district hearing officer. So, for any long-term suspensions for any students in the district, I’ll have the final say on the outcome of their long-term suspension.

MVN: What’s been your favorite thing that you’ve had experience in your time here at Mill Valley

BB: I would say probably the best thing about Mill Valley is it’s a 6A school, so one of the bigger schools in the state, but it still has that small town community feel,  really great kids, really great people, and then the success that we’ve had, whether that’s academically, whether that’s in the fine arts department, our athletic programs are really successful. so just great people doing great things.

MVN: What do you think you’re going to miss most about Mill Valley?

BB: The community we still live in. We plan to stay in the community. So, you know, we’ll still be around it. The biggest transition is going to be that I won’t be in a school anymore, so I won’t be around the students. And I think that’ll be the toughest part for me is not building those relationships with the students over four years, that’ll probably be the thing I miss the most, and the toughest part about the transition.

MVN: So what do you hope that students remember from your time here at Mill Valley after you’re out of here?

BB: I hope they just know that I truly care about the entire student athlete experience. Obviously being students first, but then athletes after that. And I hope they know that I cared about how they were feeling, how they were doing and then wanted them to be successful. And no matter what it was, whether it was, you know, C team soccer game or a varsity football game on Friday night, I wanted those kids to all feel valued and be successful regardless of what level it was that

MVN: Is there anything else you want to say or talk about?

BB: Mill Valley is a special place I would have never left Mill Valley to go to another school. The only thing that would have pulled me away was a district position like this. There aren’t very many of those in the state. You never know when that opportunity would have come up again. So if I hadn’t taken the opportunity when it presented itself, I may not have had the opportunity to do it again. So that’s the only thing that pulled me away from Mill Valley. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was something that was probably best for me and my family. 

Mill Valley News: How long have you been here in the Valley?

Deb Jaeger: I’ve been here five years.

MVN: What are you gonna do after you leave Mill Valley?

DJ: I’m moving over to Lexington trail school, and I’m gonna be an administrator there, because for 20 years, my career was middle school, and I really like that age group. It’s a new position where I can be an athletic director and a principal. I still really like the district, and I want to stay here, but this is a new opportunity, because my goal is to get back to middle school where I started.

MVN: What’s been your favorite thing that you’ve had experience in your time here at Mill Valley

DJ: I would say staff and students. I love the students here because they’re good people. They’re very kind, they’re very helpful, they’re extremely welcoming. I [also] love the staff. There’s a lot of them, but they’re all so different and unique. Feeling valued and all of our students, from peers and learning programs to electives, we’re very inclusive here, and I appreciate that a lot. It’s a great place to be, and I’m going to miss that, but at the same time, I know it’s in good hands, because we have the best staff hands down.

MVN: What are your favorite memories about working here? 

DJ: I think some of my favorite memories are Blue Bomb. That’s very unique to this school. I love the school spirit, the enthusiasm and the pride that students have here. I’ve loved our homecoming weeks and our pep assemblies and recognizing all the accomplishments like academics, activities and athletics. There’s no school in the state that celebrates as much as we do, because we just have great kids here. I also love going into classrooms teachers invite you in, you become part of the discussion, and everybody is just so welcoming, so supportive. Liket just come on to the valley. So I have tons of great memories. I don’t think I can settle on just one, but a lot of new experiences that are unique to this school, these students, and this staff, that you don’t experience anywhere else. So that’s probably what I’ll hold on to the most.

MVN: Lastly, how do you want to be remembered, and what do you want your legacy to stand for?

DJ: I would like to be remembered as someone that built connections and strong relationships with students, staff, and parents;, someone who supported everyone in their goals and what they wanted to accomplish. That I was a great teammate that would follow on anything that was ever asked of me, and I just gave up my all best every day. And was really just part of this family.

Mill Valley News: What are you doing after you leave Mill Valley?

Erin Kessler: I’m going to work at the district office in Turner school district as special education coordinator, for secondary Turner has a sixth grade academy and then a middle school, and then high school, so it’s all of that. My job is to support students with disabilities.

MVN: What has been your favorite thing about working in MillValley

EK: The kids, the people. The people here are just an incredible group of people, and the students, you guys are just amazing.

MVN: What is a specific favorite memory you have?

EK:  There’s so many. Mr. Mill Valley and blue bomb we great. I think you know, just all the different activities and seeing how involved the student body and the community are. Additionally, how much the community comes and gathers around this school to support it.

MVN: What do you think makes the students here so special? What makes it so enjoyable to work with them? 

EK: It’s gotta, it’s part of that community thing. The whole community has the same expectations for the students here, and they surround you guys with support. It’s got to be home and community and just those expectations that this community has for itself and its children. 

MVN: How do you want to be remembered after you leave? What legacy do you want to leave?

EK: Working to increase inclusion. As a special educator, that is my passion, ensuring that students have equal access that they’re guaranteed a free and appropriate public education. For those students that may for the rest of their life, never have normalcy like while they’re here, for them to be able to be involved and be around their peers and doing activities and eating lunch and just being accepted. That’s why inclusion is so important to me. For me, inclusion and kindness just kind of go hand in hand. I think being kind is one of the most important things that we can do.

Mill Valley News: What is your official title?

Debra Porter: Paraeducator 

MVN: How long have you worked at Mill Valley?

DP: 19 years but I’ve been in the district for 31 

MVN: Where did you work prior to Mill Valley?

DP: As a paraeducator, I started at Woodsonia before all the roundabouts in 1994 and then they tore that down for Clear Creek. So then I went to Clear Creek, and then a blind student came, and so I learned braille, and I followed him. So I went to Monticello Trails Middle School, and he graduated in 2011 and I’ve just stayed here.

MVN: What are your plans for retirement?

DP: My husband retired over 10 years ago, so he’s been wanting me to retire. We’re gonna do a little traveling. I’m gonna garden, drink coffee on the deck and just enjoy life and do whatever I want, whenever I want, even at the last minute.

MVN: What kind of garden do you plan on maintaining?

DP: A flower garden, I have a ton of flower beds. 

MVN: What is your favorite part about working at Mill Valley?

DP: It’s something different every day, and working with the kids, it’s always fun, and it is important to continue to learn your entire life. And I feel like I learn something new all the time. I’m mostly in math and science classes, but I’m in a couple of others, just the people I work with and all of the students, it is just a fun environment.

MVN: What is your favorite memory at Mill Valley?

DP: Well, one of the things I do remember that doesn’t really have to do with all the fun stuff, but one year we had a tornado on the last day of school, and everybody was down in the bathrooms. It was right before school let out, and so everybody was down in the bathrooms. I was down in one of the bathrooms with the girls, and they were crying. I told them to text your mom, you’re okay. We were fine. Yeah, I can’t think of anything. It’s just so many good things, but that is just one of the things that sticks out.

MILL VALLEY NEWS: How long have you been working at Mill Valley?

JOSEPHINE ELLIS: I have been teaching at Mill Valley for 23 years.

MVN: Did you change classes? Or were you always in Art one?

JE: Yeah, I’ve always taught Art One. It’s kind of changed from year to year how many art one classes I have, but I’ve always taught art one. I used to teach drawing and advanced drawing, which went to Mrs. Strong, and then Mrs. Matyak took that on when she took over those classes. So Art one, Painting, Advanced Painting, and Survey of Fine Crafts are what I teach now.

MVN: What are your plans after retiring? What do you plan on doing?

JE: I have a granddaughter, so I do want to spend more time with her. We own a company, and I basically do all the work on the weekends, so I’ll be working during the week with that. But we hope to sell the company to my son and eventually be able to travel, because my husband and I have not taken a real vacation since I was 40, and I’m turning 60 in a couple of weeks.

MVN:If you can share, what’s your company?

JE: It’s a structural steel erection company, so we put up structural steel. If you remember the light at Renner and I-435, the snake, we put that up. We’ve done sheer products over here. We’ve just done stuff out at Arrowhead. So many different things.

MVN: What has been your favorite thing about working in Mill Valley? 

JE: That’s so hard to pinpoint one thing that I love. It has to be both students and staff. I feel like it has grown in my 23 years. I do feel like we have a kind of family feel, and the students here are phenomenal and engaged.I love how they interact with the teachers, and if it wasn’t fantastic, I would have left, but I’ve been here for 23 years, so it is fantastic.

MVN: What is one of your favorite memories?

JE: Well, we used to do team building when we’d have professional development days, and I remember we would have, you had a cornhole tournament with the teachers, and that was a lot of fun. So a lot of our team building things I enjoyed because you got to know teachers that you weren’t necessarily always around. So those were some of my favorites. I would say what stands out in my mind was when I set off the fire alarm because we were doing Batik, and then the wax, they didn’t turn it off, and it was out in the hall, and it started. So everybody had to evacuate the school, and it was freezing outside, and then they had to go over to the middle school. That’s kind of a memorable memory, but I wouldn’t say favorite.

MVN: And finally, how do you want to be remembered after retiring? 

JE: I would just want people to know that I cared and that I would bend over backwards for both the students and the teachers here. Obviously, I’ve left some murals around the school, so hopefully that will help remind students of me, but just that I was a teacher that kids could talk to.