DSA Award Recipient — Educational Assistant

Assessing the situation, adapting to change and seeing beyond the horizon - Andrea Fuss maintains an internal compass when it comes to the students at Jefferson Middle School.

After a quarter of a century as a special education assistant, computer lab assistant and a general "go-to" person, seasoned veteran Andrea Fuss, embraced the opportunity to serve as coordinator and architect of an entirely new Alternative Learning Center at Jefferson. Born out of the school's improvement plan for behavior and discipline, Andrea played a major role in successfully implementing positive strategies to address challenging problems.

Andrea's professionalism is first rate. Her every task is motivated by an overarching love of children. She's a reading buddy who soon became a student's reason for coming to school. For a few students in danger of disconnecting from school, she created jobs working with kindergarteners.

Both students and staff rely on Andrea's steadfast spirit of optimism. She carries it with her when supervising lunch, organizing staff socials, or skillfully de-escalating tension.

What Andrea contributes is far outside the parameters of any job description. She knows her craft and uses every tool available to build morale among colleagues and friends.

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