While many of our 16,000+ North Clackamas students will spend the upcoming Winter Break celebrating with loved ones inside warm homes, some are worrying about where they’ll lay their heads down to sleep tonight.  Those are the students NCSD’s Katie Ray advocates for each day.  In this inspiring episode, learn how our district’s Homeless Student & Family Liaison works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure our students and families experiencing insecurities in housing, clothing, or food have the resources they need to stay afloat…so kids stay in school.

They may not wear capes or leap over tall buildings, but our guests this week are truly superheroes when it comes to keeping our 16,000+ students healthy with smiles on their faces.  In this heartwarming episode, we visit with seven of our Heroes of the Health Room…the NCSD Nurses Team.  Whether they’re monitoring student health conditions, administering advanced medical care, supporting schools with student health records, or many other health-related tasks, it truly takes superpowers to keep up with these cool caretakers on a school day!

Who do we call when support staff's or teachers’ tummies turn troublesome?  We are SO thankful for our super substitutes, who often fill in at a moment’s notice to help make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible for our students and staff.  In this appreciative episode, we check in with two of our district’s trusty substitute teachers, Andrea Glasgow and Austin McCarville, who share why substitute teaching is more “heart” work than hard work.  Plus, we get a special visit from NCSD Human Resources Directors Alma Morales Galicia and Keylah Boyer, who describe details about substitute qualifications, where we’re hiring, and how YOU can apply today! 

Although Campbell Elementary School hasn’t been utilized as an NCSD school since 2011, hundreds of future students and families visit the site every school year!  It's now our district's Early Childhood Evaluation Center, welcoming many 0-5-year-olds each day.  In this lively episode, we visit with the inspirational staff of the unique center, who evaluate and ensure support systems are in place for our youngest students with special needs long before their first day of kindergarten.

During this Veterans Day week, we salute all veterans across the United States and especially those working within our own district, like NCSD’s own Greg Neuman, Rowe Middle School principal and Army veteran, along with Yvette Lightbourn, program administrator in our Teaching, Learning, & Professional Development Department and veteran of the Air Force.  Greg and Yvette share what Veterans Day means to them and how they’re always moved by the celebrations taking place in many NCSD schools.  They also share what it was like for both of them to join the armed forces just days after graduating from high school, where their journeys led them worldwide, and how lessons learned during their service time still influence their school leadership today.

No disrespect to our previous NCSD guests, but we have our BIGGEST celebrity yet on this week’s episode!  This week, we visit with Isabella Ellsworth, the recently crowned Miss Oregon Teen USA and senior at Adrienne C. Nelson High School.  Isabella and her mom Kristen describe how life has turned upside down since the big announcement, but it hasn’t slowed down Isabella’s busy schedule that includes college-prep courses, varsity athletic participation, community service projects, and, of course, cheering her lungs out Friday nights in the front row of Nelson’s football stadium! 

For the second consecutive year, one of Oregon’s Regional Teachers of the Year teaches right here in North Clackamas!  This week, we’re visiting with the delightful Ron Antlitz, who teaches 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in the Transitional Learning Center at Alder Creek Middle School.  As you listen, it won’t take long to realize why Mr. Antlitz is so beloved by his students and colleagues, as he inspires kids to overcome learning disabilities through unwavering boosts of self-confidence and self-esteem. 

For the first time this school year, the Proud To Be NCSD Podcast moves out of the studio and into school classrooms…but not just any rooms!  In this episode, we’re talking about all the excitement…and exhaustion…that comes with teaching fantastic, frenetic, filterless five-year-olds during the first six weeks of school.  Curtis sits down after school with the ever-energetic kindergarten team at Beatrice Morrow Cannady Elementary:  Angela Nelson, Anna Tsoi, and Karen Griswold.  

It’s National School Lunch Week, and that means we’re celebrating the unsung heroes of our school cafeterias who prepare and serve more than 12,000 meals every school day for North Clackamas students.  In this tasty episode of the Proud To Be NCSD Podcast, Curtis sits down with NCSD Nutrition Services Operations Manager Greg Collins and Culinary Manager Kris DeHut, who dish up lots of little-known details about which flavorsome foods make it onto our kids’ lunch trays…and which don’t.

They're words that students, staff members, and especially family members NEVER want to hear…There's an emergency at one of our NCSD schools.
As you'll hear in this episode, one of our North Clackamas high schools recently went into Lockdown…and while nobody was hurt and the event ended without any incident…we want to make sure our community members know first, how serious we take these scary situations, and second, what measures are in place to fulfill our number one priority in all North Clackamas Schools—keeping your kids safe.

Curtis sits down with NCSD Chief Of Staff Tiffany Shireman, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Cindy Detchon, and Security & Emergency Management Specialist Robert Blake.