Harper's Unsung Hero - Sarah Piotrowski

Harper’s Unsung Heroes

February 2024

Written by Gale Fischer 

Providing a Safe Place

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. That is what business is all about: building relationships.”

— Stephaine Hines

School environments and expectations in education continue to evolve. In many ways students of the current generation act, speak and behave the same as students of previous generations, but there are also some glaring differences. There have always been kids who come to school with varying levels of trauma impacting their lives. None of us are immune from experiencing hardship. It does seem however,  like there are more children coming to us with higher levels of trauma than what we have seen ten years ago and beyond . Providing a safe place for our students to learn is something that is as crucial as it has ever been. If we want kids to learn and grow they must feel safe, they need to feel like they belong and it is imperative that they feel loved. Creating these personal connections with our students is something that we as a staff do well at Harper Creek. This month’s Harper Unsung Hero, Sarah Piotrowski, is well aware of how important this is. Every day she implements this philosophy when working with some of our district’s most vulnerable children. 

It seems that Sarah was born to be a teacher. She talks about her family growing up in the Cereal City. “I was born here in Battle Creek in 1991. I am one of two middle children. My brother Brandon is the oldest. My big sister Danielle is a few years older than me. Tyler, my baby brother, is the youngest and shares a birthday with me. We were both born on April 15. He is eight years younger.” Sarah’s family lived in Pennfield. She and her siblings attended North Penn Elementary and graduated from Pennfield High School.

Sarah’s parents, Ted and Tammy Gandy,  owned their own business while Sarah and her siblings were growing up but the way Sarah describes it, the business was a true family affair. “My parents owned a business called T-N-T Crafts. As kids, we spent much of our free time helping make crafts. We also spent a lot of time on the road at craft shows.” Sarah and her family enjoyed camping while at these out of town craft shows. She describes the great family bonding that came from these outings. “We had great memories with the craft show and camping experience. We went to many shows in Shipshewana and stayed at Twin Mills Campground.”

Sarah’s family had a competitive edge to them and this would be on display for  many of these camping outings. “There were always dodgeball tournaments at Twin Mills. Our family competed as a team. We also battled it out in four square competitions at the campground.” The craft shows may have been the source of income for the family and a time to work but it was also a time to play and have fun. 

Making and selling crafts provided for the family financially for many years. The Gandy family made and sold a variety of things with license plate birdhouses and bird baths being their most popular items. Eventually a change would need to be made however. “The craft scene kind of faded out a few decades ago so Mom and Dad started selling things on Ebay. This became bigger for them than expected and provided a good source of income. It grew enough that they needed to expand out of the house. They opened a shop called This-N-That which they still run today.” 

Camping and craft shows provided Sarah’s family with a great deal of bonding time. As the kids grew older she and her siblings had less time to help with crafts but there were still opportunities for them to spend time together. Sarah gives details about her memories of high school. “We spent a lot of time at sporting events either as a participant or as a spectator supporting each other. Danielle played volleyball throughout high school. Both of my brothers wrestled and I played basketball and volleyball.”

Sarah loved school from kindergarten on. She has some very fond memories in particular during her high school years. “I had many friendships from sports. My favorite teacher was Mrs. Richardson who taught cooking and home ec classes. For our senior prank we bought bags of crickets and let them loose in the school. The school had to hire an exterminator. Most of the teachers thought it was funny. Our class had a lot of school spirit. We seemed to win a lot of the class competitions.” 

As her high school years began to come to an end it was a no brainer for Sarah as to what she would do after graduation. Sarah describes her desire to become a teacher. “Since I was a little girl I had always wanted to be a teacher. My great grandma and grandpa were both teachers. My grandma on my dad’s side was a teacher. My sister and sister-in-law both went to school to be teachers.” Sarah would spend hours practicing her future career. “I can remember playing school at home as a little girl. My grandma gave me the projector that she used in her classroom and I used it as a prop for pretend school play at home.”

When Sarah graduated from Pennfield in 2009 she knew she wanted to be a teacher. She thought she might like to teach in an elementary classroom. Her path to becoming an EI teacher for Harper Creek was filled with twists and turns from the start. Sarah reflects on her years at Olivet College. “I only applied to only one college, Olivet. Their coaches recruited me to play volleyball. I played volleyball there for three years. I wanted to be an elementary teacher, but Olivet didn’t offer this. They had a major called English Elementary education so this is what I started in.” The trajectory in her career path would take a slight change in direction after her freshman year at Olivet. “ When I began my sophomore year of school my academic advisor told me that I needed to declare a minor. I really struggled with this and didn’t know what I wanted as a minor. I mentioned to him that I had always been interested in psychology and social work. He recommended that I double major with special education being my second major so this is what I did.” Olivet offered two special education endorsement areas, LD (learning disability) and EI (emotional impaired). “I decided to pursue the EI endorsement and graduated from Olivet in 2014 with an EI major and an English Elementary major.
 

Sarah spent her first assignment at Sonoma Elementary her junior year of college. It seemed that she immediately felt like she had found a home there. “I student taught at Sonoma with Barb Remaly in the EI classroom the fall of 2013, and with Erin Willard in Kindergarten the spring of 2014.” She was unable to find a permanent job the fall after graduating from Olivet so it seemed only natural for Sarah to spend some time at Sonoma as a substitute teacher. This was enough to satisfy her but in February of the same school year an opportunity came her way which was bittersweet.  “I was offered a job at Arbor Academy February of 2015, teaching second grade special education in a co-taught room. After accepting the position, the very next day I was offered a long term sub position at Sonoma teaching kindergarten. I wished I would have been offered the position at Sonoma a day earlier. I really wanted to teach at Sonoma. I had such a good experience at Sonoma. I felt welcome there and felt that I had developed some good relationships with the kids, the teachers and the administration.”

Sarah would enter into a big transition and chapter in her life during her time at Arbor Academy. She talks about her journey of dating, engagement and marriage to her husband Zach. “My husband Zach and I met at Olivet through mutual friends. My best friend was dating his roommate. We started dating my senior year at Olivet. We dated a couple of years, were engaged in 2014 and  married in 2016.” The young couple enjoyed a few years together as newlyweds. Sarah continued to hone her skills as a teacher and Zach had found a job in the insurance industry. They started a family soon after. “Our first child, Zander, was born in 2018. We were blessed a few years later with Harper in 2020. Our latest edition, Presleigh, was born in 2023.”

Sarah and Zach enjoy doing some of the same things with their young family that Sarah experienced as a child. They also spend time doing some different things. Sarah discusses how she, Zach and the kids spend their free time. “We live on St. Mary’s Lake and spend a lot of time on our boat. We also enjoy camping. I like to call it glamping (glorified camping in a cabin) Many of our camping trips are at Yogi Bear where there are plenty of things for the kids to do. Zach likes ice skating so he and the kids ice skate on the lake in the winter.” Teaching can be a demanding job and time at home with a family can be a welcome distraction. Zach and the kids have given Sarah balance in her teaching journey that eventually led her back to Sonoma.

Her time at Arbor Academy was a good experience for Sarah. She talks about how her time teaching there gave her a taste for what she thought she might like to teach long term. “I worked at Arbor for three years, the last two years in a Kindergarten classroom. I loved the Kindergarten position. A kindergarten position became available at Sonoma in 2015. I thought that this was my chance to come back to Sonoma so I applied for it but it was offered to someone else.”

Sarah’s opportunity to return to Sonoma would come a few years later but her love for teaching Kindergarten would make it a difficult decision. Sarah reflects on the dilemma she faced “In 2017 the EI position became available at Sonoma. I wasn’t sure about applying for it. I really wanted to return to Sonoma but had enjoyed teaching Kindergarten and wanted to stay in gen ed.” Sarah had the tools needed to excel in working with students with emotional impairments but really loved being a Kindergarten teacher. The connection she felt for Sonoma Elementary would eventually win out. “I finally decided to apply. I was nervous that I would become burnt out from special education but I was excited for the possibility of returning to Sonoma.” 

Sarah was offered the job. There was a period of adjustment for her but her comfort with the students, families and staff at Sonoma would provide for her during this transition. She has evolved as a teacher in arguably one of the most demanding teaching positions and proven to be an asset for Sonoma Elementary and Harper Creek. Sarah describes the highs and lows of being an EI teacher. “As an EI teacher I experience secondary trauma daily, but there are also rewards. One of the things that I like about my position is that I get to work with the same students for several years in a row. It gives me an opportunity to really get to know the kids and their families and establish those relationships. Two of my kids who are now at middle school came back to see me at school with their families before the holidays this year.” Having these two former students come back to see her provided an emotional lift for Sarah. It reaffirmed the importance of building relationships. “Building relationships is important for all teachers but even more so with the students that I work with. Being able to be their teacher for three or four years in a row is helpful with this process.” Sarah also sees that part of the value in working with students for multiple years is it allows her to see individual transformation.  “I can see the growth more than I would be able to if I had had them for only one year.”  

With the behaviors that Sarah sees on a daily basis she admits her job can be mentally and physically draining. She explains what she feels to be the antecedent of many of these behaviors. “I feel that all behavior, good or bad, is a form of communication. When a kid is in crisis I am always trying to figure out what they are communicating to me and what they need to be successful.”

Each year Sarah has a team of paras working with her. It is truly a family atmosphere in her classroom and a team approach. She has high accolades for her co-workers. “My paras are amazing. I couldn’t do my job without them. They work so hard. We get along very well. We communicate but joke around as well. We need to try to keep things light hearted.”  Her team always tries to stay positive and keep things in proper perspective. “We make sure to celebrate all of the small wins and victories. I have learned not to take any of my student’s behaviors personally. I try to step back and think of the experiences that the kids have been through. I want to have school be a safe space for my students. I want them to feel loved. Our motto is that each day is a new day. There are no grudges.”

Teaching can be one of the most rewarding careers out there but it does not come without stress. One can try to keep the emotion out of the task at hand but this is next to impossible. Oftentimes the emotion is part of the reward but the emotion can also be a cause of stress. It is important for educators to have high academic expectations for students but this can be an uphill climb if relationships are not built. This concept of building relationships is important really in most jobs. Sarah's daily task of teaching kids who come to us with a great deal of baggage is something that is really difficult to script. She can plan for it and be as prepared as possible but ultimately her dedication to helping her students feel safe, to feel loved and to feel like they are connected to the Sonoma family is more important than anything else she can do as a teacher. 

Gale Fischer has spent most of his career as a special education teacher for Wattles Park Elementary dating back to 2001. He is an avid runner and began writing the stories of local runners twelve years ago. Many of these stories have appeared in the Battle Creek Shopper and the Battle Creek Scene Magazine. Recently he started capturing the stories of Harper Creek staff members. His column, Harper Unsung Heros, features a different staff member each month. He believes that everyone has a story that can inspire others.