WEBVTT

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Gentry: My name is Nancy Zima-Gentry.

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I'm a second-grade literacy teacher here at Hardy.

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I have been here seven years, and we came into the new building seven years ago.

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But before that all took place, we reconstituted.

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That was a new word to me regarding the school system.

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I was new to the school system, and the central office came

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and asked to meet with all the teachers.

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And we just gathered in the room, and we thought it might be regarding our move

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into the new building at the end of the school year, and this was in November of the year.

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And they started explaining the reconstitution, and I am not sure if it had to do with the goals

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that they had for this community, school, or what.

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It wasn't clear to me, but we were told that we would have to reapply.

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As a new teacher in the school system and at Hardy,

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I was willing to reapply because it was just new to me.

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Other teachers, I heard, were not as excited about reapplying because they had tenure.

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They had experience.

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They had been years at Hardy, and in most transitions from an old school to a new building,

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everybody just made that transition to their grade in the other building.

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But that was not going to be the case, and so we had to go through the interview process.

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Harvey: I'm Patricia Harvey, and I'm the fourth-grade literacy teacher at Hardy Elementary.

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When reconstitution was mentioned seven years ago, my perspective was probably different

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from some of the newer teachers because I had spent my entire teaching career at Hardy.

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For 23 years, I had been in the community and worked in that school.

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So when I was told that I would have to reapply and interview for my position,

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I have to admit I was a little bit resentful of that fact.

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The interview process was extremely intimidating for me

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because I had only interviewed one time before when I got my job initially at Hardy

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and [it] was not a very comfortable experience,

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but it wound up being something that became very positive.

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They had a list of 10 to 15 questions that involved curriculum and your beliefs,

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your behavior, strategies that you would use.

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Matson: I am Vonetta Maston fourth-grade teacher at Hardy.

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When I first found out about Hardy, I received a phone call from Ms. Elder.

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And I was working at a middle school at the time, and she informed me that she was the principal

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of Hardy because she was at Mary Ann Garber [Elementary School] during that time.

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So, she asked me if I would come to work with her here at Hardy because she wanted

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to do something a little different, and she wanted to departmentalize her upper grades.

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And since I taught math at the middle school, she said I would be a perfect fit.

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So I came in, and I had to go through the interview process like everyone else.

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Gentry: The biggest part of the interview, for me, was that they were asking for a commitment,

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a commitment for dedication of changing yourself to fit, not a mold,

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but to fit into what this community and these children needed.

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And that commitment partly was that we were going to attempt a year-round school.

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We had to be willing to make changes.

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Harvey: One of the first things that the administration did to bring us together was to take us

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on a retreat, which was the first time that I was able to meet

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who were going to be my team members.

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We had already committed to staying at Hardy for at least three years,

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so I knew that I was going to be working with these people for a long time.

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Three of the original fourth-grade team are still here at Hardy; only one is not here anymore.

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But that was a time that we were able to really bond,

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sit down together and talk about what our goals as a fourth-grade team were.

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Gentry: I feel like the retreats that we have had over the years, and we have had three,

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have really brought us together as a family.

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Harvey: The changes in the past seven years have been remarkable.

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When I was at the old Hardy, we couldn't get substitutes to come into the building;

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we couldn't get teachers to come.

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Morale was terrible.

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The building was falling apart.

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The teachers did not want to be there.

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Only about five of the teachers from the old Hardy came to the new building,

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and it's just been a remarkable difference in morale.

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Because the administration was able to pick who they wanted who had the same goals

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and same ideas as they had for the future, we've been able to, as has been said before,

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become a family and really focus on exactly what the students need.

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Our goal is to take every child that comes to us and get them to become the best

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that they can be because we really do feel that every student can learn.

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That's our belief, and we stand by it, and we will do anything that it takes to get

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that child where they need to be.

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Dedicated teachers willing to go that extra mile to help the students and that's the difference.

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When I used to tell people that I worked at Hardy, they would say, "I'm sorry".

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Now, they are, "Oh I read about you, I heard about you, I saw you on television."

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And they are excited about it.

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We have a waiting list, now, of teachers who have applied to come to Hardy.

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We have to turn them away