Triton Paraprofessional nominated for state award

In the world of education, often times those who help students every day don’t receive the recognition they deserve.
For Allison Ross, a paraprofessional for Triton School, her recognition that she deserves came after 27 years in education.
Earlier this year Ross was one of only a few education  support professionals to be nominated for a state award through Education Minnesota, the union that support professionals in Minnesota belong to.
These professionals depending on the school consists of things like paraprofessionals, custodians, food service workers and many other positions.
On Oct. 3, Ross recieved a email stating that she had been nominated for the award, and then began to ask her colleagues if they knew anything about the award.
Once she did this they began giving her hugs, and congratulating her.
For Ross, receiving the nomination, was something that she can’t put into words.
“I can’t think of all the words that describes how I feel about being nominated for the award,” Ross said.
As part of the process for the award Ross had a letter written on her behalf by Elaine French, along with letters of endorsement from Karen Porisch, Christi Kreigh, and other people including a retired principal, former director of special education for the district and a parent of a student.
For Ross she explained that her favorite part of the job is being able to work with different special education students and seeing them grow.
“Being able to work one on one with the students is my favorite part,” she said.
She also explained that she really enjoys the “ha ha” moments when a student grasps what they are working on or meets a milestone in their learning.
“There's nothing more rewarding to me than the “Ha Ha” moments,” she said, it’s not something that happens every day with special education students but when it happens and they grasp what they are understanding it’s really amazing,” she added.
For Ross her journey to become a paraprofessional wasn’t a typical one.
In August  of 91 she had the summer off, from cooking at KM, and went to the church across the street from the, then school in Claremont.
Her kids were playing at the playground there and her daughter was in 1 grade at the time and decided to run across the street to fill out some paperwork for school.
Her doing so was faith.
The secretary at the school told her that she should fill out a application for a paraprofessional position, since they were in need for people to work in childhood education and Kindergarten.
Ross decided “why not” and took the application across the street to fill out.
After filling it out she returned it to the school and the principal at the school came out and asked her to speak for a few minutes.
After visiting for a little bit, she went home and after being home for less than 20 minutes she received a call from the principal telling her that they would like her to come in for a formal interview tomorrow.  
After being interviewed by a panel of people including Karen Porisch, who she continues to work with today, she got home and less than two hours later, received a call stating that they wanted her to work for Triton, and asked when she could start.
“My breath was taken away,” Ross said, “sometimes you just have to follow your gut,” she added.
Ever since she joined the district 27 years ago she explained that she has been happy with the decision.
“I can’t say enough about how great the school district is,” Ross said.
While Ross found out last week she wasn’t the one to win the award she said she is happy for whoever wins, and felt like the whole process of being nominated was very rewarding.
“It's been a very rewarding thing and I congratulate who ever wins,” Ross said.