“It takes me a four-minute drive [to come to school]. I can run home if I forget something. My kids are now going to easily go here—so the ease of it.”
“[There’s] this tradition. [People who are always talked about]—the principal people talk about going back to the seventies and even further, or Mr. [So-and-So] who helped to build the old playground (…) So the first couple of years, I didn’t even know what I'm doing (…) And now I'm in it where kids come back to see me at the end of the year. I have siblings, the families where you taught the siblings or cousins. And so you're kind of in this. Just at conferences this past week, a student came with his mom and said, We want to tell you [a former student] is expecting a baby, and [the student] was a kid that I had when I first started here. So there's all these connections.”
“I've only had two principals at [this school] and I've been able to work under them and do my thing. So I've been comfortable.”
“[There are] stories I've heard from other places where I can't even imagine that happening. You know—all lesson plans in every single day by 7 am. The principal standing out by the bus, saying, ‘Oh, you're leaving already? It's 2:15.’ ‘Well, the contract ends at 2.’ (…) Those are stories. I've heard nothing like that [here]—the exact opposite. I've been so fortunate.”
“I guess it’s the good administration and people I work with, the family tradition and connection, and then being close.”