Brandi Borgemenke

Gallatin County Lower elementary is not a ranked school in the state of Kentucky. It is not on any list of academic achievement or does it have a large budget for its students. Needless to say when I enrolled my then 4 year old twins into preschool I was nervous. They did two full days a week their first year in school and it was dreadful. Sending them to kindergarten five days a week at the same school was a decision that was made for us my the state of Kentucky, we live in this district we work in town and this was our only option. To open I would like to say Isaac and Noah are 100% boy. They have hearts of gold but are extremely hyper and love to move their bodies. They have always kept me very active and I didn’t know how this would go over in a public school setting with low staff ratios and limited resources. The beginning of the kindergarten school year was rough, they struggled. They hated the rules and couldn’t keep their butts in the chairs or their hands to themselves. I had multiple calls back to back regarding their behavior. At home we don’t have the issues the school has - the other students and different schedules was a lot to manage for them. As a young mother it was difficult for me to relate or give feedback to how they needed to fix the issues they were having. Brandi stepped in and took both Isaac and Noah into her classroom. She started a behavioral tracking system to help them understand accountability and also had the school bring in a behavioral therapist to meet with us one on one to help the school staff and myself understand how to help correct the behaviors. She has daily communication with me and in the past three months Isaac and Noah have learned to read, joined - to their delight - the 100 club and are actually learning how to be accountable for their actions in a positive and non critical way. This teacher changed the way I see the educational system as a whole. It’s not the district or the school, it is the heart of the teacher that makes all the difference and she made that difference in my sons lives. Her compassion and encouragement was exactly they needed, I had been told in the past that public school wasn’t for all students. This statement broke me as a parent. Brandi’s willingness to change her classroom dynamic shows me that teachers can make a difference.

Isaac Noah Tomlin