Round Elementary Paraeducator Named Hartland Support Person of the Year

When Laura Cressey’s two adult sons were growing up, she was a hockey mom in the stands of Hartland cheering them on. Thirteen years ago, Cressey, 49, decided to pick up a stick and learn to play the game herself.

“I think I like the speed of the ice. I just like that fast pace,” Cressey said. “Your mind is not on anything else, it’s on what you need to do to be a team player. It’s not the aggressiveness, 'cause I’m not an aggressive player, but I like the strategy of it.”

Teamwork and strategy may be what Cressey admires about the game of hockey, but she also applies those skills and concepts to her work as a paraeducator at , where she was recently named Support Person of the Year for Hartland.

According to staff at Round, Cressey has proved that, just as in hockey, she is a dependable team player who is always willing to lend a helping hand and who has an uncanny ability to read a teacher's mind.

“As a teacher, I didn’t have to plan everything out for her,” said Michelle Rutherford, Round Elementary first-grade teacher. “I would say, 'We really want to study characters and here’s what I was thinking,’ and she would fix it up for the group and make it work for them.”

Cressey’s creative ideas and connections with the students are just some of the reasons why she has become a respected colleague with a reputation for trustworthiness. But it was the extra effort on simple things that didn’t go unnoticed in her building that helped set her apart from the rest.

“I think she deserves it again for next year,” said David Kromer, a fourth-grade teacher. “She’s wonderful and just into everything and doing more than what we could ever expect of a support person like that.”

Things such as helping the children find costumes to help bring their characters to life in the small plays they put on. Cressey’s consistent presence and helpful work on the school paper made it even more successful than the year before, according to Barb Benford, the media specialist at Round.

“She was there every day,” Benford said. “She worked with the kids, helping them do their interview questions, write their stories, come up with story ideas, and she did editing. She helped them make it so much better than what it was.”

This “above and beyond” attitude, while much appreciated by the staff at Round, is really all about the kids, according to Cressey, who has worked at almost every school in the district in her 13 years as an educator and has been at Round Elementary for six years.

“I think I just like the challenge of, ‘OK, here’s a student that has some special needs and let’s figure out why they have those needs and what we can do to make them successful during his day, or her day,’” Cressey said. “And when you see that success, it’s extremely rewarding.”

Her strategy in teaching is simple. Find the best way to help her students succeed socially, which will help them achieve academically, as well. And thanks to several “lightbulb” moments and plenty of patience, Cressey was able to succeed in some areas with certain kids that helped make their school year better and more productive.

“She’s always there to help people and has great ideas and input,” Kromer said. “She has a really good rapport with the children. She has to work with a lot of difficult children, and she makes it seem easy.”

Cressey’s reaction to her award of Support Person of the Year is one of shy acknowledgment, saying that she never wanted to be the “star” but wants to have everyone who works in her field recognized for their hard work and achievements.

Winning this year, however, meant that Cressey was able to ride in the Memorial Day parade and her 84-year-old mother was able to witness her daughter’s moment of recognition.

“As I drove by in the car that I was in, she literally jumped out of her wheelchair and she was screaming and yelling things in excitement,” said Cressey, who is the youngest of eight children. “And who knows what they were, but I just knew she was really proud, and to experience that moment, it meant a lot.”