Two years ago, the Elementary school got a new dean of students: Jennifer Lang. She had been teaching in Cotopaxi for twenty years and was ready to move out of the classroom and to help more students.
She’s very rarely in her office and loves to be with the students, stopping where she’s walking to say hello to kids or ask them how their day is going. She enjoys being spontaneous and responding to the ever changing needs that the job demands, which includes conversing with the students and even hearing about their weekend plans.
“You know, you might not be able to, like, solve everyone’s problems but at the end of the day you can make them smile,” Dean Lang said.
She realizes there are 462 children and helping all of them would be too much, but finding the little successes is important. When Lang is in her office, she’s still helping students. She has think sheets to help kids work through their issues and work on restorative practices, in case conflict occurs with the students. She has toys and puppets to help kids resolve their problems. Lang has found that when kids have a toy in front of them, it’s more like they’re talking to the toy than her so they’re more likely to open up. Lang even brought puppets from her days working in the classroom to help. Her office is comfortable with plants and even a small disco ball.She and the Elementary school principal, Cory Scheffel make most of the major decisions together, but Lang also makes plenty of decisions on her own.
“I make little decisions all the time, like lots of student discipline, like if a student gets sent to the office,” she said.
This is a part of where the think sheets come in handy. At the Elementary school, there are more things the dean takes care of than just that that concern students. She makes sure the school campus is safe, calling Bri Tucker, the school resource officer if anything looks askew or could harm the students in any way. For example, there was a bag placed on a fence across the street from the playground when the students were outside on their lunch recess. This didn’t necessarily threaten the school, but because it was placed then left abandoned, Lang wasn’t sure what the bag had in it so she called Tucker just to be careful.
The dean of students has a very exciting work day, from stopping to talk to students in the hall to making sure the campus is secure, she hardly has a moment to rest.
