Staff Above & Beyond April 2017

These are the staff members that were nominated to the April Above and Beyond Award. The winners of the drawing were Jamie Ballenger, Cindy Garten, Neil Patrick, Carrie Valenzuela and Amy Dail.  Congratulations to all!!

Elinor Keller and Alex Carlotta: Alex and Elinor always jump in to help cover the front office without complaint, even when there is more coverage required than normal. They are helpful to people who call and come into the office and our staff. Thanks Alex and Elinor!

Elinor Keller: Elinor has had the task on her to do list for a while to get done, but because of everything she does for everyone else she was not able to complete. She just recently was able to complete that task on top of staying caught up with everything we ask of her. Great Job Elinor!

Cindy Garten: Cindy accepted the responsibilities of a lead teacher while the lead teacher in classroom 10 was on maternity leave. Cindy kept the classroom up and running with a smile every day. She offered support and built a great partnership with families as they worked on family goals together. She was sensitive to the needs of all the children in her classroom and provided them with many opportunities to learn.  Cindy also offers support and a helping hand to her co-workers as they were new to the classroom and EHS regulation.

Nancy Blair: Nancy has been nice enough to volunteer to drive the Child Focus van to the Zoo for us , so we can have more parents come with us.

Jamie Ballenger:  Jamie has made extra efforts to engage families at CNE 1 this year by creating a number of opportunities for parent to contribute to the classroom. She initiated and supported special projects for families to complete at home and turn in, as well as volunteer in the classroom. She also takes a leading role in creative improvements to the center, like when she made a nice poster for our dental campaign, as well as the flyers for the events and signup sheets to encourage participation. She actively supports family engagements, which I think has played an important role in our participation from families.  Jamie Ballenger has gone above and beyond everyone’s expectations. She always has the children’s interest above anything else. She has gotten more parent involvement in the classroom than I have ever seen. The parents are comfortable around her and she makes their ideas happen in the classroom. She has gotten us a free trip to the zoo and an amazing end of the year celebration planned. I have had a great year working with her and I know the parents are happy having her as their child’s teacher.

Betsy Weiss: Betsy received a last minute call from a family needing transportation. She was able to rework her schedule and get them there. Thanks Betsy for always being able to reworks things in time of need.

Sheri Horsley, Stacy Burt and Stephanie Couch: Room 9 staff helped me out with childcare for my Achievement Gap Workshop last Friday , when they are typically preparing for next week’s class. Not only did they help me with that, they participated in the silly activities and helped me clean up and reorganize the Conference Room after the workshop was over. Thank you so much!

Amy Dail: A mother came in with her daughter to register for services at the Mt. Orab office. The mom had completed the registration form and checked “No” on the suicidal question. However, in the space to explain why they were seeking services, what was originally written had been scratched out and a new explanation written in. Amy started asking some questions and asked a therapist to meet with the family to assess them and determine if a crisis appointment was needed. It turned out, that there was a need for a crisis appointment, which was scheduled. I was very impressed with Amy’s ability to recognize that there was more going on with this client than what the mom had written on the registration. It would have been very easy for this to be missed, since the mom checked “No” and what was written did not indicate an immediate need or threat.

Neal Patrick: I wanted to nominate Neal Patrick for helping me with a client in a crisis situation last week. Neal left the “usual” school, where he provides school-based services, to go to Goshen Middle School and not only met with the student there, but also spoke with the parent to ensure safety of the student, as well as immediately notifying me, as the client’s therapist. Neal does a great job not only with his own clients, but goes above and beyond to make sure all clients are receiving the support they need.

Carrie Valenzuela helped tremendously with the translation of the Behavioral Health Client Handbook to Spanish. In no time, she was able to revise the entire handbook and incorporate the up-to-date changes and additional information in accordance to CARF standards.  Carrie completed the task efficiently and with a great deal of accuracy, applying her excellent language expertise and creative approach.