October Employee of the Month

Congratulations to Mirka Chen, the FRSD October Employee of the Month! Mirka has worked as a teacher at Veneta Elementary School for the past nine years, at both the first grade and fourth grade levels. Before teaching at VES, she taught for eight years in Arizona.

Mirka’s past students remember her fondly for the extra personal attention that she gives in addition to daily math and reading lessons. She has been known to miss her breaks and lunches so that she can take the time to connect with students in non-academic ways, such as teaching them to knit or paint. As evidence of the connections she makes with students, Mirka was invited to fly back to Arizona a few years ago to attend the wedding of one of her former students whom she had continued to correspond with throughout the years.

Besides reaching students in the non-academic realm, Mirka is also a top notch teacher and has attended many trainings over her career to strengthen her already solid teaching.  Mirka and her 4^th grade teaching partner have beat the state average in mathematics on the state assessment tests by 8 percentage points for the past two years.

Mirka is also a team player both at the school and district level.  This year alone Mirka is on two district wide committees in addition to three school committees, including heading up the Safety Committee at VES. If anything needs to get done at VES, Mirka makes sure it happens. She stays late to make sure nothing is left undone, not just in her own classroom, but in the school as a whole.

Mirka’s virtues don’t end with her school life. Outside of school Mirka enjoys painting, gardening, and hiking. She also does most of her own home repairs in addition to partnering with her family in their commercial real estate holdings. She definitely leads a busy life and we’re proud to call her our own!