Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #2: Patrick Mulick, Director of Student Engagement

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Episode #2: Patrick Mulick, Director of Student Engagement · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Alan Spicciati, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us if this is your first time listening, or if you are now a repeat listener, as uh we recently released our first podcast, and we're excited to be back with you today.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today, my guest is Patrick Mulick.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is the Director of Student Engagement in the Auburn School District.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick, hello.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm excited to be here.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: You are excited to be here.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so one of the things you're going to learn is uh I have great respect for the folks in student special services, and uh a number of them would have done a fantastic job.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I also know uh late in the day when we record these podcasts, Patrick would bring me energy.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So uh thanks for being with us today.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, this is great.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is fantastic.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for inviting me.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of the reasons that I wanted to share about student special services and our inclusive practices this early in the podcast is it's one of the areas that I've learned the most since I've been in the Auburn School District.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I have a I have a background as a teacher and a school administrator, principal.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously I've had a lot of um uh experiences with special education, but I also had a lot of gaps, and things have changed a lot since I was in the classroom, you know, 25 plus years ago in what we know about best practices serving kids and and uh what what the most uh appropriate education is.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I brought Patrick to share some of those insights, but I really appreciate that he has a teaching stance, and it's not just a telling stance.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a good mark of of somebody who's great as uh central office support.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so thank you for the education you've provided me.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned so much and I'm excited to uh help spread some of that knowledge to our listeners.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're gonna start with the first question, Patrick, that I've actually asked before and I plan to ask all of my guests.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me about your favorite teacher.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So this isn't going to surprise you.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: My favorite teacher, her name was Rachel Leach, and she was my high school speech and debate teacher.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: I did speech and debate in in high school, and she was extremely influential in in my career and really in my life, and helping me find myself, find my voice, and to help me learn how to make mistakes and get over those mistakes and develop the character uh that I am today.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I I honestly, in in many ways, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today if it weren't for her.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are you suggesting you were a shy uh young lad early in the?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a shy young lad.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just uh I was I was putting myself out there and I and I didn't know how to find my path and how to find my right character.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And she really helped me to develop the stay the ability to take my uh fearless mindset when getting up in front of people and what to do with that.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was up on stage at a very early age, but she really helped me hone my craft in talking in front of other people, and I have found that that has just had a huge ripple effect for the rest of my life.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it but so the funny thing with that is though, uh I I go through speech and debate and I go on to college, I go to Gonzaga University, and my roommate who you're randomly assigned to, your freshman year, just so happened to be a graduate of Auburn High School.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: He had just graduated from Auburn High School.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Boring, Oregon, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's in the middle of nowhere, boring, Oregon.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I had never even heard of Auburn, Washington before.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I go to Gonzaga, and my roommate, whom I'm aligned with, is uh a graduate of Auburn High, and he did speech and debate just like I did at Auburn High.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I guess it was a foreshadowing of things to come.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is terrific.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we're gonna keep note that you are from Boring.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't often associate Boring with my guest Patrick Mulich, the director of student engagement in the Auburn School District.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned Gonzaga, and uh we all know that Patrick is a big Gonzaga enthusiast, a fan of the basketball program, but you had a unique role while you were on campus.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, why don't you tell us about your time at Gonzaga?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I went to Gonzaga right about the time that they started to heat up back in the late 90s and early 2000s, that uh it was an exciting time to be on campus, and I I went there wanting to do something something athletic and something where I could use my voice, and I found that right balance with uh being on the cheer squad.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a cheerleader at Gonzaga for four years, and to this day I still have people come up to me and remember me as that bald cheerleader who used to yell at the crowd.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm still known in many circles as the woo-hoo guy from Gonzaga.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really impressed you also still fit in the uniform.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I've tried, you know.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: I do my best.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we appreciate all the enthusiasm.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: How how has that helped you in your career?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're about to get into uh special education and inclusion, but uh telling us about Patrick Mulick, how has that background in cheer, in speech and debate, uh informed your work as you've moved forward through your career?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if there's one thing I've learned in life, and I tell people this often, so if you know me, you've heard me say this before.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Attitude is like glitter.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Good or bad, once it's somewhere, it's everywhere.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: The attitude you bring every single day, uh whether it be in the classroom, in a workspace, uh on a basketball court, if or if it's just yourself, like standing up in front of people, the attitude you bring, it's it spreads to everyone uh around you and how you influence them.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So if there's nothing else I've learned in life, it's that attitude is contagious.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things we really love about you, Patrick.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing those words of wisdom.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Patrick will be on a later episode to do a two-hour breakdown on the Gonzaga basketball season.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh be sure to tune in for that.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: You'd have a very small but very interested audience for that for sure.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh sign me up.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so um Patrick is a director of student engagement in the department we call student special services in Auburn.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And before we get into your work and and helping uh educate our audience a little bit about um the the latest and greatest on special education and inclusive practices, tell us about the department.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um part of my podcast reason for being is to help tell our story and and help to make public some of the things that um uh uh staff in other buildings or parents or community members or students or whoever listens to this podcast uh might not know about.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us about student special services.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh our department helps oversee uh special education across the district, and that it goes from preschool uh all the way up to students who may need services until they're they're 21.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a pretty wide uh lane to make sure that we're we're addressing accurately, and we want to make sure staff feel supported and that they have what they need to be successful on the front lines in supporting students with disabilities.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is a very complex field to work in, and honestly, the burnout rate across the country in the field of special special education is really high.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking at a study a couple years ago where it talked about uh the burnout rate is so high that special ed teachers who go out into the field after going through four or five years of college to do what they do, within five years, 25% of them will quit and move on to a different job.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And five years beyond that, another 25% will move on.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So nationally, we see this challenge that we have set staff who go through um the right schooling to become a teacher, but when they get to the front lines, they find it overwhelming.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And our job out of Student Special Services is to help to reduce some of that stress, to help make sure people that feel they have what they need in order to be successful, that they have the right resources, they have the right training, that they know how to collaborate with each other.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: When you think about people who work in special education, it's not just the special education teachers, it's the school psychologist, it's the occupational therapist, it's the speech and language um pathologist.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: It there's an entire multidisciplinisciplinary team that needs to be working together to be able to wrap around individual students in many different ways.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we're there to make sure that they have the skills and resources to help them be successful where they're at, and that they know how to team together and really make a difference for those students in the classrooms and help support families.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really helpful frame, and it's music to my ears.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of my goals is that the Auburn School District is a great place to work uh and that we do attract and retain high-quality staff, diverse staff, uh, and that we are an uh employer of preference uh for people who do this really important work to support our students.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the work that you and your teammates do to support our teachers is really important to our mission.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about uh uh about our students, and I'm I'm actually gonna start uh by asking if you could define inclusion as it pertains to special education.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a word that gets thrown around in a lot of different contexts.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but just kind of in layman's terms, help us understand inclusive practices in a special education context.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, our inclusive practices is focused on making sure that every student has a welcoming environment to step into and to be supported.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is a challenging dynamic in the field of special education.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Many of us get into the field because we want to help kids out.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: We want to help out individuals with disabilities.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we have such a big heart for our work that when we begin to work with students, we feel we want to take care of them.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: We want to help support someone who wasn't given a fair lot in life.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we can go too far in not just helping out, but doing things for our individuals with disabilities and having them in segregated settings where we can care for them in a better way.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And what research will tell us is that students with disabilities perform at a much higher level when they are included with their typically developing peers in their gen ed classrooms.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the number one indicator of a student being successful in a general education classroom is how much time they spend in there and being fully embraced and accepted.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we talk about inclusive practices, we talk about inclusion.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's about helping our students find community within schools, not just amongst each other, within their uh their group of individuals, their their uh classmates with disabilities, it amongst their typically developing peers and normalizing for themselves that they can be a welcome part of the community, but also for the rest of the community to welcome the idea and to and to normalize uh the idea that individuals with disabilities, they are a part of our community.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're not ones to be segregated, they're ones to be included.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because really, when we think about being active in a community, being involved, that's not just a that's not a special need, that's a human need.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that we we all uh are looking for is to be included, and we want to make sure in our inclusive practices we are welcoming students with disabilities into our gender classrooms as much as possible.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fantastic overview.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I'm glad you touched on the value to all students uh of inclusion and all students uh being in space with all other students and how valuable that is in developing students for their future and to have a uh you know a more just, more loving, embracing society.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate the framing.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're here uh to provide the least restrictive environment for our students with special needs, but we're also creating a community inside of our schools that will lead to, I believe, a better community and a better world outside of our schools.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So well, and just to to add on to it, I think where that eventually goes is you have community members that are understanding and well welcoming of individuals with disabilities.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you're at the grocery store and those individuals who have been exposed to students with disabilities, they see a child melting down in the checkout line.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: People are asking, hey, how can I help?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: instead of you know giving that eye of judgment.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when it's uh someone is a little bit louder at the movie theater or at church, we're more patient understanding with that because we've been exposed to that.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh a lifelong impact when people are exposed.
• 14:24
  unknown: Exactly.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you alluded to a part of this work that I think cuts a grin against our grain.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of caring, well-meaning people will want to provide extra support uh for a student with special needs.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that might take the form of a one-on-one paraeducator or other scaffolds in the learning process.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a hundred percent done out of the best intent, uh, but you've done a great job of educating me and our other leaders in the district why that's not always in the best interests of the student and especially their long-term development and their path to uh more independence in their life.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So share with our audience uh some of the the cautions and missteps that providing too much support could lead to.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's I I if you gave me three hours, we can dive deep into this, but I'll give I'll give you the quick answer.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be after your Gen Zaga basketball special.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: That'll be the next one.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: When we think about promoting independence, we have to look at our students as not just individuals that need to be cared for, that we need to build up their skill set.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: We really have to stretch them.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just not enough to be there to do things for them.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes we'll see someone with a disability and say, we need to do things for them because they can't do it on their own.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: But if we constantly do things for them throughout their life, if we serve them a little too well, we end up not serving them at all because then they become reliant on that extra help.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: They're not allowed to have the opportunities to do things more independently.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there's research, very clear research, that points to the detrimental effects of students with disabilities having too much help.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we think about supports in classrooms, sometimes that that's a one-to-one adult assigned.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, sometimes it's just us jumping in to help out uh as a passing adult, um, you know, someone who's struggling to carry their lunch tray down the hall.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: We need to make sure we give kids the chance to do things on their own and allow them to have the chance to learn from their mistakes because that's a part of life, is is learning from your mistakes.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a very uh careful balance that we have on our work.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: It is promoting independence without abandoning, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: But building up their skill set without enabling.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: We want to make sure that we're helping them grow uh and and not just have things done for them while they're here in the Auburn School District.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you make a really good point.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think I got it.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: We were in a training probably about five years ago, and either you or one of your colleagues showed a commercial uh of an adult who uh well do you remember the commercial I'm referring to?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you set it up?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure it was me, yeah.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, it was a commercial just showing different adults, each of them having a one-to-one adult with them, all right?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Having their a one-to-one pair and what that looks like.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: When someone is handing you your cup of coffee but then pouring it into your mouth, when someone is hand over hand cutting up the carrot for you, when they're sharpening a pencil, pencil for you, when they're following you everywhere, your own autonomy is lost and you're directed by someone else.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the point of the commercial was that independence is precious.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's an it pr it's precious for students and it's precious for adults.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're gonna be making the right decisions for students as we move them along, we have to think about what is this going to look like long term when they reach adulthood.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think up until that point, uh, maybe I was on board with, well, gosh, we need to uh promote independence because uh a student will not have a para or one-on-one throughout their life.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that commercial helped me to see a different vision that uh it's it's not that we can't provide a one-on-one.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like what kind of quality of life would that be if a student had abilities that we were holding back because we were oversupporting it and not letting them grow and struggle productively and fail and get up and do it again and do it better, and uh you know, reach the the level of efficacy and quality of life that they really have in them.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk about the Inclusive Practices Institute.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: First, I want to salute your whole team.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so Tammy Petrina is our executive director.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: They have um a really great group of uh educators, staff in different roles, who are helping support our teachers and our classified staff and our administrative staff.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of the ways that they did it is hosting basically a conference this summer.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was July 31st and August 1st.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I remember those days specifically, uh, because I was incredibly impressed that we had I I want to say 200.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: You could correct me if it's if it's off of that.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: But about 200 staff members show up literally in the month of July, which uh I think there's a perception that uh teachers are off doing other fun things, and and in many cases we are, and the RR is really important.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: But we had a group who wanted to learn how we could do a better job supporting all of our students and in particular our students with disabilities.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: We came together up at the Muckle Chute Event Center and had two incredibly powerful keynote speakers, as well as some breakout sessions and some of our own staff presenting, uh helping their colleagues learn.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Could you just explain a little bit what that experience was like?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know you were one of the people who helped to plan it and uh pull the whole thing off.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, first and foremost, I've been at conferences for years, but I've never actually helped plan one before.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a new level of respect for people who plan large conferences.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Our numbers, I think it was actually more like 260 or 275.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was it Wow, it was pretty high.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we were excited for that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's such excitement in the district around helping out our students with disabilities in a better way, and I think part of that was displayed just by our general attendance.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: The the speakers we we brought in were fantastic.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Shelley Moore, she's just a neighbor up from Canada.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: She is fantastic.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: You should check her out online.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: She's got quick, easy videos to watch.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Five More Minutes, and she talks a lot about uh why inclusive practices are important.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: The breakout sessions were just fantastic, and they're fantastic because they were provided by our own staff here in Auburn.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: We have so much great stuff going on in schools, and to have our educators who are working on the front lines share their expertise with other experts or with the other experts who are working uh in classrooms in Auburn, that that was great.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: So just that community sharing was fantastic.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really great to be able to do that in a time when we all can take a deep breath and recharge and really focus on what we want to do in the upcoming year.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was great to get together during the summer and uh take advantage of the opportunity.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I was particularly proud of is the large turnout of classified staff.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Classified educators, paraeducators who are a part of this.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it warmed my heart because part of our commitment is our in our new strategic plan is investing in our paraeducators for the professionals they are and furthering their learning and helping them be their best on their job andor um you know helping to fulfill their aspirations if they're interested in a leadership role or a teaching role, maybe down the road, and and so forth.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So do you recall how many of the 260 people were classified staff or just a rough percentage?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And talk about uh the importance of investing in our classified staff and the roles that they provide uh support to our students.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I want to say it was right around 30 to 40 percent were were classified staff.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh don't quote me on that, but I feel it was right in that window, which again was still quite a bit.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: So in that that's so important.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, those who are certificated staff, those uh who are teachers, those who are psychologists, those who are um some of our therapists in the schools, they they go to school for many years to do this job and they show up highly trained and to have another adult step in who's had next to zero training, uh to have them provide that same high level of support, that's not doing right for them.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to make sure we're empowering our classified staff so that they have that knowledge, so they have some of that background to step up and meet the needs of some of our complex students every single day.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that requires valuing them for who they are.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: They are the front lines uh staff for so many of our students.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the more we can invest in their great knowledge, the better it's going to be for students.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, I would I was just proud of our classified staff for being there, uh, proud of people like yourself um being inclusive of all of our staff and and helping our success.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing I didn't ask you when we got started is just how did you get started in education?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you come out of Gonzaga, uh, you have all this energy, you want to do good in the world.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you start?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Admittedly, I had my first exposure to potentially doing education when I was in high school, and I got to take a class where I got to go out into middle school classrooms and support some other health lessons.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I learned as a younger person.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: I had a sibling that was 10 years younger than me that I helped her develop as a child.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it planted that seed.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that was helpful.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would say beyond that, though, I uh when I got to Gonzaga, I knew I wanted to do education or communications.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I took one communications class and I said, I'll do education.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so no, I I I got into education and I took one class in special education.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was psychology of the exceptional child.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it specifically.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the second I went into a special education classroom, I was in hook, line, and sinker and never looked back.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I ended up staying and getting my master's at Gonzaga and behavior analysis and taught elsewhere for uh about a year and a half.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: I actually started off as a preschool teacher and then taught in the middle school level.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I I love preschool.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: I came over to Auburn.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: One of my friends had gotten a job working at Washington Elementary, and she said, You should come over and interview.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: We have preschool jobs.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I show up at the interview and I sit down and I'm really excited to interview for a preschool position.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Oh no, we have this great high school position.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, high school?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why would I want to teach?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: What why would you want high school?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I went, I interviewed and they offered me the job, and they just dared me to try it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: You never know what you're gonna love until you try it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, I ended up loving it.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I taught in uh at Auburn High School for five years, and uh since then uh moved into the administrative role and have been here for quite a while now.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you were telling me uh before we started, 18 years in Auburn?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: 18 years, yeah.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's tot yeah, 18 years total here in Auburn.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I I don't see ever a reason to leave.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I know there's many great kids in our neighboring districts, but the reason I stay here, and I tell this to people at recruiting fairs, and I'm not lying, the reason I stay here and the reason why people stay here, it's because of the great professionals.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: It is the the great adults that are here.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if if you know me, I have no issue with advertising for the school district that you need to come work here.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is not on our uh prep sheet, but um you say you have no shame in advertising for for new employees.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, could you give us an example of that, Patrick?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so this takes off of uh our previous superintendent Kip Hair, and he would joke about you know getting some of the needs uh met in the district by wearing a sandwich board walking up and down uh Main Street.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, in that theme, uh many years ago, I put together a sandwich board uh that I wear at recruiting fairs, and it's become quite popular.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: I dress it up differently every year, sometimes with Christmas lights, sometimes with lightsabers.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it helps attract people, but I've realized over the years I need to continue to up my game.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: So this past year at the Tacoma Career Fair at the Tacoma Convention Center, not only was I wearing my sandwich board, which was displaying everything Auburn on it, I was also dressed up like Buddy the Elf.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you can understand that that would quickly get people's interest.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we had the most crowded booth at the fair by far because I just kept on bringing them in with my uh Buddy the Elf costume and my sandwich board.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love it, and I love uh hearing new teachers say, actually, uh I don't even teach special education, uh, but I met this guy in the sandwich board and I got interested in Auburn and I ended up speaking with a principal or an administrator of my area and getting hired on.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm not above a little shtick.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: I respect uh game, uh respects games.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for um doing whatever it takes for our students and to have great teachers.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: 18 years in Auburn, uh, I would think one of the joys of that continuity is you've gotten to see students go through their entire educational career with us.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um not just an opportunity for you to reminisce, but to paint a picture for our audience of what a success story.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: There are many different success stories and ways of being successful, but just kind of paint a story of one of those students who's moved through our system and you've gotten to watch grow up and uh become ready for the world.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm not gonna name names, but though those out there who know the student, they're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about when I say it when I say it.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: But no, a number of years ago, we had a third grader up at Lee Hill uh with high-functioning autism, and he was a fantastic young man, but we were not finding the success that we wanted.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it was hard because we had everyone involved.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Parents were on board and working with the school.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: We had the principal, we had the special ed teacher, the school psych, the SLP, the behavior specialist, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, like everyone's involved, and it's still not working, right?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we met so often trying to figure out a way to help the student be successful in gen ed, and we weren't finding that success.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, at one point, I still feel embarrassed to say this that at one point in a meeting, I suggested maybe we need to have the student in a special ed classroom for most of the day.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that will help solve things.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so thankful that uh the mom at that point in time said, like, there's no way in the world.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, we're we're gonna figure out a way to make this work.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it took the the team really wrapping their mind around what could we do differently for this individual?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we had to go into his highly restricted interest, which just so happened to be the Seattle Seahawks.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we Seattle Seahawks ized everything.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: We changed his desk into what we what we called the hawk's nest.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, instead of saying, uh, you know, do you need some support right now?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: We would say, Do you need some 12th man right now?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like we would really get into it.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we would ask, instead of saying, Are you making a good choice?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: We would say, Well, what would Russell Wilson do right now?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Back you know, when he was still good.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, this completely helped turn everything uh uh around.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the cool thing was that school year that we Seattle Seaoxized everything for the student, uh, the NFL Play60 program visited his school, and Earl Thomas came uh as a part of an assembly to his school, and this student got a picture with Earl.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it it really had a huge impact.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was actually Earl was so blown away by what he saw, he invited the student and like six of his best friends to be his personal guest on the Monday night football game against the Saints.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it had like everyone in the school, including myself, asking the student, do you consider me to be a good friend?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh fortunately, I didn't make the cut, but no, he went to the game, got a run out on the field with the team, um, and really cool experience.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: But the the bigger thing was is that the school team itself really went deep in wrapping their mind around how they could serve someone differently and having the patience knowing that that doesn't happen overnight.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that takes a lot of time.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And since then, there's been many bumps in the road that the team, uh, as he's gone from elementary to middle, middle to high, uh, and now is close to the end of his journey here in Auburn.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Time and time again, teams have come together to help problem solve around.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: It always hasn't been easy, but there's greater success now because of uh the way people haven't invested in this individual over the years.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: And my learning from it is that with our students who challenge us today, they're just our next great success stories ready to be told.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's us who gets to help write that story.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: We get to help write that book, and that's extremely inspiring and very uh life-giving for me, right?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's what gives me a lot of joy showing up to work every single day, knowing that we're supporting that work.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is a perfect, hopeful note to end on.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what a wonderful story uh about a student having great success in the Auburn School District.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: We finished this podcast uh with a question.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: What was your favorite thing to do at recess when you were in school?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: My game that I loved was uh bump, or people know it as knockout, where you all line up, right, and you shoot baskets uh shoot the ball into the basketball hoop.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I like that because it didn't take much officiating, either like you made it in or you didn't.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a need for conflict in it.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great answer, bump.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think a few of us can relate to that.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Patrick.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have been joined by Patrick Mulick, our director of student engagement, uh, sharing about inclusive practices and uh many of the wonderful things we're doing in the Auburn School District, uh, particularly in support of our students with special needs.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot uh in this time today and certainly over the last several years.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick, I'd like to thank you for joining us.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure being here.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you to the audience for joining us today.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you like this, please spread the word.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we're trying to get the stories out about the people and programs of the Auburn School District that make this a really special place.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, special thanks to Vicky Alonzo, our director of communications, who is the producer of these podcasts.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: That'll do it for this one.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hope we see you next time on the reset.