001good morning everyone this is doreen cunningham assistant superintendent and i have lori robinson here she is the a principal finalist for the fort river elementary school principal sir we were able to meet on thursday but due to technical difficulties you could not see lori and so i promised the community that i would do a brief meeting with her or have a brief meeting with her and this is saturday morning at 6 30 that we're both up and ready to just answer a few questions so without further ado just you know knowing that it's this early i'm going to ask lori the first question that we always ask everyone and laurie the first question says please tell us about yourself what roles responsibilities or experiences and licenses you may hold that have helped you prepare to
002be the next principal at fort river elementary okay so um my name is lori robinson and i am currently working in springfield public schools as a spanish teacher i've been working in springfield public schools for 25 years 16 of which i've held some some leadership positions i've been department chair i've been an administrator and um i've been a department chair and an administrator in my career for 16 years i my licenses i have a license for being a teacher i have an administrative license excuse me i have a director a director's license for foreign language or world language and i have also applied for the superintendent's license because i'm that close i feel that i'm qualified i as i said i've been in i've been in leadership for 16 years of my 25 years so
003i have had quite a bit of experience and i've been in the education field in springfield for 25 for 25 years i bring a lot of experience with me both officially and unofficially being put in roles to lead different groups or committees during during the school year and throughout throughout my career okay would you like to add anything or you're all set um i think that i'm all set i've been i think that i'm all set okay um one of the other questions state what thoughts or ideas do you have for bringing a sense of joy compassion love and unity into fort river elementary school at the student level staff level and the whole school i think first it is getting to know people but in addition to that communicating i think communication is a
004very big thing right now it's very it's very necessary we're coming out of a pandemic that none of us have ever experienced things unlike anything that we hopefully will ever know and right now it's the idea of addressing the issues talking about them communicating about them and getting closer getting to know each other and finding joy there's joy in a lot of you can find joy in lots of things small things large things but right now it is really addressing the social and emotional needs of people bringing something bringing something joyful to them it could be music it could be art it could be dance but it's something that we can hold on to that will release all the tension and the negativity that we've been experiencing the last year at least and really looking
005and finding a place for us to come together and find a space that brings us that makes us happy and it i really think it's roots in communication we start by communicating talking about things discussing things looking at things being open being vulnerable and then working on healing the problems within ourselves healing what's going on within ourselves healing each other and really working together to build something build something that's our own and find there's joy in the process finding joy and in joy and release in the process and then going forward okay anything else right you're ready for the next question i think i'm ready for the next i think i'm ready for that okay great so one of the next questions will be caminantes is the dual language program at fort river how will
006you support the mission staff families and curriculum of the program and serve as an ambassador in the larger community excuse me i am a teacher world language so i am thrilled over the moon about the caminantes program as a teacher of foreign language as uh well i can't say foreign language or world language as a person who had a major in world language as a person who did her master's degree in another country living in a different culture living the language i think this is living in a country where people studied more than one language outside of the united states and living in this country where we tend to be monolingual i am thrilled with this program i think it's the most wonderful thing i think is something that should be expanded because we as
007a people need to be i believe um more open to other languages this is a country that was built built on immigration most of the people that came here spoke another language and that part has been lost the language has been lost and the culture has been lost but other countries live are doing the exact opposite they learn more than one language and it's very important because we have to make the world smaller not larger the world is getting smaller just by movement and immigration but we have as a country need to be participants in it not simply top down or english only but we need to be participants in it to be able to better communicate i mean part of the problem that we have right now in society is the lack of communication
008or the or the inability to communicate and understand so when we learn another language we learn another culture we understand people they understand us we can probably avoid a lot of the things that are going on right now so i think that this is a wonderful program i would love to see it expanded from i would like to see schools more dual lingual schools to language schools because it is you bring the world you make the world smaller you make yourself more of a participant in the world and you understand people better you might even understand yourself better so i would wholly support it and i would i don't know maybe paint my car but i would have something i would definitely tell people that this is important and i would encourage people to to
009participate in it and the other thing is it helps us with our own language you learn another language you learn your own language you learn more about your own language so i think it's wonderful yep okay thank you and what is something that you have done that you are especially proud of and it does not have to be work related i am very proud of and said this before i'm very proud of one of my students one of my recent students because she was able to graduate and even now talking about it again it really i was talking about it yesterday in fact with a colleague and it just it brings me joy she was a student that when she came to me she was cutting class a lot and not doing what she needed
010to do and so i called her grandmother i don't know why but i called her grandmother and her grandmother came we spoke she got her to start coming to class which was good you know we were working and i had to work to catch her up and everything which was fine but then she stopped coming again and she turned up later to tell me that she was pregnant so i was like okay you know what are we going to do what are you going to do and she told me that her grandmother had told her that while she was in school after she had met me that she should find someone to like to support her or to be her confident to help her out you know find a person that would that she thought
011would be willing to to be there for her and i said okay well that's good you know good luck and then she told me that she had chosen me and i said but why you don't even like me you don't come to class and she said that her grandmother liked me so that's good and that's nice her grandmother liked me but her grandmother also knew that i was very serious about what i was doing and i was very serious about my students and that was important to her so she chose me and i said okay but you're gonna have to understand that you're not gonna like me because i'm not gonna let up if you're choosing me you're gonna have to be willing to do what i tell you do the work that goes into
012getting you to progress getting you through all your all your classes she agreed and it was an uphill battle but it started out as an uphill battle but we came to an agreement so i had two things that i had to deal with i had to deal with her academics and had to deal with her personal life because she was a young girl so maybe 16 and she was pregnant and really not knowing how to take care of herself you know how to eat for example she can sit there and eat candy all day and think that it's okay and things like that not do a work not not taking care of herself physically emotionally and academically so i had to work with all of that and it was back and forth back and forth
013but i was serious about it and she had to graduate because she was an older student as it was and you know i went to her teachers to find out what she needed i did math with her i did english with her i did science whatever it took you know helping her to interpret reinterpret understand things we spent a lot of time together a lot of time together but the idea was and the purpose was for her to graduate and then she had the baby she started going back into her role of not coming to school again and then it was an excuse for the baby's sick well the baby doesn't you know the babysitter is the ill she can't do it the other person can't do it okay we'll bring the kid to school
014so for two years i took care of a baby while i was teaching while she was going to school i was checking on her academics making sure that everything was where it needed to be to make sure that she was passing and i carried a baby through my classes for two years i sat in graduation with her baby we watched her graduate it was the most beautiful thing i will never forget it and i still keep in contact with her i call her to check on her she's moved to florida but i will always take care of her and and be there for her and support her because she did it and i'm so impressed with her and i'm so proud of her she's thriving the baby's thriving everyone is doing well so i think
015that's probably my proudest moment oh thank you very much and the purpose in having this meeting was really so that people could see you because they were curious you know just hearing the voice was not enough and um i'm hoping that these few questions that you were able to answer today on stream yard and being visible and all is going to be sufficient and well i do thank you because like i said um at the start this is saturday morning it is 6 35 right now and and i will send out this video to the staff and the families at fort river elementary and we thank you so much for coming and joining us i'm sure that um individuals won't mind just listening to the rest of your interview from the previous um meeting that
016we had so thank you again for showing up this early and just um joining your voice and sharing your information with us so you take care and have a good rest of your day thank you you too i appreciate it thank you everyone alright bye bye bye bye