“It never donned on me that we never actually met before,” said Rebekah Kmieciak.
“We were technically at Steubing Ranch Elementary School Summer School, but none of us had ever stepped foot on the Steubing Ranch campus at any point during summer school last year,” said Julie Magadance.
Kmieciak and Magadance both work for North East ISD. Kmieciak is a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) behavior coach. Magadance is a Student Teacher Assistance Network (STAN) counselor.
Fate, as it were, brought them together.
Because at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Kmieciak went back into the classroom to teach fifth-grade summer school.
“I had this opportunity to teach virtual elementary school,” said Kmieciak. “I taught high school before but not elementary school. I got the opportunity to work with a lot of good people with a lot of good guidance, and Julie was one of them.”
That was June of last year.
Throughout the pandemic, Rebekah and Julie stayed in touch. They worked together. They brainstormed new ideas and new ways to not only teach students but offer social and emotional support.
As the world seemed to be getting smaller for everyone, their world was growing larger.
“Our circles really don’t overlap. They didn’t overlap at my old position as an elementary counselor, and they don’t overlap now as a middle school counselor because Rebekah is doing secondary, but the work that we do very much overlaps,” said Magadance.” “It’s really nice to get to share with somebody at a different level.”
Kmiechiak added, “It was nice to have a ‘thought partner’ that wasn’t on my team but still doing a lot of the same work we were doing.”
Now, instead of thinking about solutions at a campus level, they know they have support District-wide.
They also know they have a friend going through the exact same thing.
“I feel like there is a little bit of relief that happens knowing that Rebekah is there,” said Magadance. “If I need an idea, it means I don’t have to know how to do everything right now because I can rely on people to help me, and that’s awesome.”
“Even though this District is very big, everything comes down to building relationships,” said Kmiechiak. “It feels like we are spread out a lot, but there is time because relationships are very easy to form.”
Rebekah and Julie finally met in real life last month, nearly a year after connecting virtually. While it wasn’t the year anyone wanted, in hindsight, it may have just been what these two needed to connect and make an even bigger impact on NEISD students.
