Employees of the Quarter
Mary Long, Head Start Program Specialist
Mary Long is a hard worker. This year, she has willingly agreed to work through the summer (she usually has summers off) to help supervise staff, help with updating forms for the next school year, and help with our programs Family Service plan to name a few things. She has been a big help as acting program specialist for our immersion program in Shishmaref, ensuring to get staff their support and training they need to run their program. She has also been the acting program specialist for our home based program in Shishmaref, and to our staff in Golovin who ran a summer program there for the first time this year. Mary took the time to update our 2021-22 supervisor forms so they are ready for the next school year. Mary has been a big support on reviewing and sharing feedback on parent curriculums for our program. Mary has also been acting Child Development Program Manager several times when needed. Mary is a great asset to our team and deserving of this nomination. She didn’t just agree to supervise staff this summer, she provided Coach Mentor support to those in need. She joined a national peer support group with me (CDSM) and 30 other Head Start staff to assist with providing feedback and suggestions for updating the federally required Classroom Assessment Scoring System to be more culturally appropriate and sensitive to various adult-child classroom interactions. The Head Start Service Team regularly seeks her opinion and insight when looking to set annual goals, and seeking ways to provide program improvement. She is a solution focused employee. –Deb Trowbridge, Head Start Director & Rebecca Callahan, Child Development Service Manager
Roberta Katongan, Head Start/Early Head Start Teacher Aide
Roberta Katongan is an employee who exceeds in everything she does. She always makes sure she has everything submitted to appropriate members of Head Start. She works with families and children of Head Start, and makes sure that they get the best out of receiving training and education. She always has a smile and is always positive in her work with everyone. She is an employee who stands out because she is one at her site, whereas other sites have a team to complete all the required work in a day, week, month and year. To help her families during the Pandemic she had created a FB page for her parents to get all the required homework instructions, and parents were able to post form home the learning the children were doing. –Mary Long, Head Start Program Specialist
Joleen Oleson, Accounting Specialist, Tribal Affairs
Beginning in May Joleen worked to become the Point of Contact for the Tribes of the Bering Strait Region with the Treasury Department to ensure each Tribe received their allocations from the Government for their ARPA funds. Due to new requirements with the US Treasury Dept. not every Tribe had the internet or cell phone capability to create the ID.me account required to do this process. After dealing with many technical difficulties and changing deadlines all 19 Tribes completed their 1st allocation submission with Joleen handling seven of the submissions. With ever changing deadlines again for the 2nd allocation submission, Joleen was able to secure the confirmation of six of those Tribes, with two more needing assistance due to the contact person for those Tribes not being in the office. The outstanding three will still receive their funds since the technology with the Treasury requires time beyond the deadline. She has done all this without being asked and took on the project knowing the impact if not dealt with. In addition to all the business of securing ARPA funds for the Tribes, Joleen has also been acting for her supervisor who is traveling weekly to each community to complete a grant that was delayed due to COVID. From April 1st to June 30th Joleen was Acting Tribal Affairs Program Director 13 days total. –Cheri McConnell
Team of the Quarter
Tomas Paniataaq, Desjarles Bright, Kirstie Henry
Every year the Child Advocacy Center puts on numerous events for April Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month. From the beginning of January Tomas Paniataaq assisted me in planning all the activities and doing all the prior legwork leading up to CAP month. These tasks included shopping, pricing, fundraising, and hunting down materials and equipment for these events. Then in April he assisted me in executing several of these events including Cornhole at the VFW, Field Day, the Children’s March, and Honoring Our Children (in which he helped set up, clean-up and speak at). His assistance has never been limited to just this month, he assists all year round but during this month he steps up for me and the CAC in a greater way.
Much like Tomas, I’d like to recognize DJ Bright for all of his assistance throughout CAP month where he helped plan, set up and run events including Field Day and leading the Children’s March. Additionally, CAC was helping with face painting during Midnight Sun week, and I found myself alone painting faces for Friday June 18th. With 20 minutes notice DJ chipped in and assisted me in painting faces but also recruited several other people to help with painting faces. Without his help there would have been numerous disappointed children (and a few disappointed parents too).
Lastly, I’d like to thank Kirstie Ione Henry as well for assisting in April for CAP month during the different activities but also during face painting and whenever she is able to help. We were given four pallets of diapers with two-days’ notice to distribute on behalf of the Alaska State Troopers. With no notice she stepped up and helped me identify needed recipients and homes for most of the diapers. I’d like to thank her for this and always giving an impromptu helping hand when she sees us struggling through events.
