LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC EDUCATION
PAGE 5
Election 2019: Voters to select
three School Board members
Three seats on the Anoka-Hennepin School Board
are up for election on Tuesday, Nov. 5 - election
districts one, two and five. Voters within those
districts will elect representatives to serve the
community as School Board members for the next
four years.
On the ballot:
• D
istrict one includes Anoka and portions of
Ramsey, Coon Rapids and Andover. This seat
is currently held by Tom Heidemann of Anoka,
who has filed for re-election. Heidemann serves
as board chairperson. Erin Heers-McCardle,
also of Anoka, has also filed for election for the
position.
• D
istrict two includes Blaine and a portion of
eastern Coon Rapids. This seat is currently held
by Marci Anderson of Blaine, who has filed for
re-election. Anderson is currently the vice chair
and is running unopposed.
• D
istrict five includes Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn
Park, Fridley and a portion of southern Coon
Rapids. This seat is currently held by Nicole
Hayes of Brooklyn Park, who has filed for
re-election and is running unopposed.
Voting information
Polling locations may be different than the place
you voted in the last election. Enter your address in
the Minnesota Secretary of State’s voter polling place
finder at https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us or call 763-
324-1300 for assistance finding the polling location
that serves your area. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.
to 8 p.m. on election day.
Absentee or early voting
Eligible voters may vote absentee in-person or
by mail prior to election day. In-person absentee
or early voting is available at the Anoka County
Government Center during regular business hours,
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
In-person absentee or early voting is also available 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3 and until 5 p.m.
on Monday, Nov. 4. The Anoka County Courthouse is
located at 2100 3rd Ave. in downtown Anoka.
To request an absentee ballot application please
contact Anoka County Elections at elections@anoka.
co.mn.us or by calling 763-324-1300. Ballots must be
returned by 8 p.m. on election day to be counted.
To learn more about the Anoka-Hennepin School
Board and see maps of areas represented, please
visit ahschools.us/schoolboard. n
AHEF grant provides Roosevelt
teacher a new way to engage summer
school readers
For a couple years, Matt Van Zee has been trying to
come up with creative ways to get his middle school
students more excited about reading.
Now, thanks to some help from the Anoka-
Hennepin Educational Foundation (AHEF), the
Roosevelt Middle School English teacher thinks he’s
onto something.
“The kids reading comics were really benefiting
from it,” he said. “So I asked myself, ‘what could I do
to have a bigger impact?’”
This past spring, he approached the AHEF again
with another grant idea. This time he wanted to focus
on summer school students, but wanted to provide a
bit more of an immersive experience.
His idea was to get a copy of a comic book into
the hands of every student, have reading club events
during the school day so students could discuss the
reading with one another, and wrap it all up with a
live discussion with the author of one or more of the
comics.
Tess DeGeest, executive director of the AHEF, said
the idea was a huge hit and one the organization was
excited to support.
“The AHEF board loved that (Van Zee) was focused
on helping his summer school students,” she said.
“There usually aren’t additional resources for summer
school, so part of the appeal was to help kids who
have been identified specifically as needing more
help.”
Dr. Stephanie Ochocki,
Anoka-Hennepin’s preK-
12 school social worker,
will represent the district
as one of 10 board
members for the School
Social Work Association
of America (SSWAA).
Ochocki is the midwest
representative, supporting school social
workers in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska,
North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and
Wisconsin. She was elected to the position
in October of 2018 for a two-year term that
began in January.
The mission of the SSWAA is to empower
school social workers and promote the
profession of school social work to enhance
the social and emotional growth and academic
outcomes of all students.
Ochocki will work with a committee to create
resources for school social workers that will
help bridge the research gap by providing
access to information and tools supporting
evidence-based practice in schools.
She will participate regularly in board
meetings, annual conferences and leadership
institutes hosted by the SSWAA to help the
organization provide school social workers
across the country with necessary resources
to help reduce barriers to academic success
by supporting students’ social, emotional and
behavioral well-being. n
Bus driver competes
in international safety
competition
“Comic books and graphic novels,” he said.
“They’re a great way to engage students who are
reluctant readers and those who may be reading
below grade-level.”
He first came up with the idea to introduce comics
and graphic novels into his classroom a couple years
ago. When the popularity of the books exploded
among his students, he received a small AHEF grant
to purchase more of the books so there would
be more opportunities for students to read them.
Included were a few comic books, and a few graphic
novels.
Ochocki takes
national leadership
role for school social
workers
Roosevelt Middle School English teacher Matt Van Zee has
been using comic books and graphic novels in his classes as a
way to spur more interest in reading among students.
So Van Zee received a $1,000 grant, which allowed
him to purchase a number of copies of three different
comic books: Ms. Marvel: No Normal, by G. Willow
Wilson; Shuri: The Search for Black Panther, by Nnedi
Okorafor; and Luke Cage: Sins of the Father, by David
F. Walker.
During class, Van Zee said, there was time for
reading, then the students would participate in book
clubs, or literature circles, to discuss the reading and
develop questions, and as a group they did a lot of
vocabulary, too, as the books are heavy in greek and
latin root words, which is part of the middle school
English curriculum.
Finally, toward the end of summer school, the
class held a Skype discussion with Luke Cage author
David Walker, where students would walk to Van
Zee’s computer, and ask him questions, one-on-one,
while the rest of the class listened to the answers.
They talked about the creative process, how he got
into writing comics, and even what it was like to have
disagreements about plot lines with his bosses at
Marvel.
“The engagement — it was awesome, and unlike
anything I’ve ever done,” he said. “It was a real eye-
opener.” n
Melissa Melser, who
drives Anoka-Hennepin
students to and from
school and activities for
First Student in Anoka,
competed in the 49th
Annual School Bus Driver
International Safety
Competition where
she earned honorable
mention honors.
The competition was held in Austin, Texas,
on July 21 and was administered by the
National School Transportation Association
(NSTA). It began in 1971 as the National
School Bus Safety Road-e-o, and is one of the
most important events in the industry.
Melser has been driving a bus for
almost nine years, and is in her second
year competing at the international safety
competition. She qualified for the international
competition after placing first in her division
in overall points at the Minnesota School Bus
Road-e-o. Melser finished in fourth place out of
12 drivers in the small bus category.
According to Melser, the best part of being
a professional school bus driver is getting to
help her students start their day on the best
foot possible by getting them safely to school
with a positive attitude. n