Stapp Interstate Toyota is a pillar of the community and continuously supports St. Vrain Valley’s students, teachers, and staff. This school year marks the fifth year of “Stapp Inspires,” an initiative supporting organizations that help make Northern Colorado remain one of the best places to live.

During this campaign, an educator from St. Vrain Valley School District is selected each month and recognized for their tireless efforts to support and inspire our communities’ youth. Erin Maldoff, special education teacher, at Alpine Elementary was nominated for January’s STAPP Inspires Educator Award. 

“Erin is a phenomenal special education teacher who exudes positivity. She has a huge heart and a great deal of empathy for our students with special needs. Her calming presence is a gift for students, parents, and other teachers as well. She is a problem solver who can help guide students to be their best. She sets high standards for her students and coaches them to set high standards for themselves. I love seeing Erin work with children as she talks with the voice of a hypnotist and gives the warmest hugs. Students make progress quickly with Erin guiding them and the staff at Alpine really know what a gift she is.”

Amber Marsolek, principal at Alpine Elementary.

Maldoff has worked for the district for the past six years. She says the best part of being a special education teacher is that “we get to celebrate so many milestones with students. We get to build kids up and grow their confidence.” Outside of work, Maldoff enjoys working in her garden, reading and cooking.

Every year, Colorado Society of School Psychologists sponsors an annual award for School Psychology Supervisors. Jacqueline Celaya, school psychologist at Eagle Crest Elementary and Longmont Estates Elementary, was nominated for this award for her outstanding supervision of University of Denver Students. 

As a supervisor to psychology students and interns for the past five years, Celaya consistently provides a variety of opportunities for students to explore the profession and learn about the role of a school psychologist in the field. She gives students the ideal environment to learn and grow by encouraging and guiding them with “real world” on the job experiences and expectations. 

Celaya credits her transparency as one of the reasons she was nominated for the award. She enjoys talking about what it entails to be a school psychologist and likes to have honest conversations with her students and interns to get them prepared for what it’s really like on the job. 

“Graduate students learn certain things on how to be a school psychologist in a textbook kind of way. I enjoy teaching them the reality of how what they learned in school and in a textbook crosses over to the real world position,” Celaya said. 

Celaya, who has been with St. Vrain Valley School District for the past 9 years, enjoys her job as a school psychologist. She likes the fact that each day is different. She has a variety of responsibilities; from evaluating students to see if they qualify for special education services, holding IEP meetings, and testing students one-on-one, to brainstorming with a team of teachers on problem solving techniques, working with student behaviors and providing social emotional group lessons. 

“Working with special education students, getting to know them and watching them grow is the highlight” of her position, Celaya says. She has been lucky enough to watch a lot of her students grow from kindergarten to fifth grade. 

The advice Celaya has for those wanting to enter the field of school psychology is to “learn how to prioritize tasks and set boundaries.” She says the position can be “overwhelming at times and you can end up spending a lot of hours working at home, especially in the beginning.” After doing some self-reflection, she realized she needed a better balance between work and her personal life. Once she figured out a balance that was good for her buildings and good for herself, she felt much better overall. 

On her personal time, Celaya enjoys spending time with her dog, Bear, who is the center of her world besides her job. She also enjoys spending time with family and friends and playing golf. 

Kory Shick, special education teacher for LSACE (the district’s 18-21 year old program), turned his Significant Support Needs (SSN) transition classroom into an indoor oasis with plants, fish and more. 

“I’ve worked really hard to create an experiential atmosphere to encourage students to actively apply the skills they learn within their IEP goals, while they have their 1:1 intervention time,” Shick said. 

Students are working on collaborative and independent horticulture/hydroponic/aquaponic projects throughout the entire time that they are in attendance at the program. Students attend based on transition goal needs, usually 2 or 3 days a week, and Shick provides them the opportunities for engagement and learning.

Shick says they are in the foundational stage of the newly developed horticulture program, which will eventually be certified with the Innovation Center to administer career badges. The projects are based on need and ability level, but also student preferences, so there is room for development in social-emotional goals, self-determination, independent living, and functional academics as they spend time within the program. 

Northridge Elementary Special Education Teacher, Danielle Mignon, is tuning into her students needs by creating a sensory bulletin board. 

Instead of getting frustrated that bulletin boards were getting destroyed, Mignon and her team decided to turn a negative behavior into a positive outlet for students. “Our students were showing us that they needed additional regulation strategies and the board has worked to support that. We have not had a single bulletin board destroyed since these went up,” Mignon said. 

“The De-Stress Corner” sensory bulletin board allows students to engage with the board by choosing a sensory activity. For example, students can “Color It” by directly coloring on one of the designated art pages on the board. They can also “Rip It” and tear paper or “Scratch It” and feel different textures. Additionally, they can Squeeze It, Push It, Slide It, Rub It, and Pop It.

Teachers have directly taught the “why” for the boards and how to use them if needed.

Each classroom is planning to do a design challenge where the students will choose and create a sensory board for their classrooms (using a trifold) to be kept in their break spaces.