Kasie Jackson is the assistant principal at Ballard High School. She is very joyful and proud about her experience at Ballard. Jackson shares her thoughts about how her personal experiences at the school has made her the person she is today, but she also shares about the person she is outside for her profession. Do you know that the staff have a life outside of school? What Ms. Jackson likes to do outside of her job? Or did you know that she was a Ballard Bruin herself? Let’s find out as we take a dive into the inside scoop of the assistant principal.
As some may or may not know, Jackson was a graduate from Ballard High School, and now a proud staff member here, but have you ever wondered about how working at Ballard keeps her motivated everyday? Jackson talks about what keeps her going on her feet when working at the school. “I think the thing that keeps me motivated is that our students are in general very sweet people to work with, and the staff is great to work with,” says Jackson. She also shares some of her favorite fun memories and moments here at Ballard with the upperclassmen. “My favorite memory is probably senior prom night.” She proceeds to talk about how the night was special for her. “The kids are really happy, and they’re dressed nice, it’s always fun to see them dancing,” she says. However, Jackson does not just help the students at Ballard, she also enjoys giving back to her community, spending time with loved ones, and having a good time. “I like going to music concerts, I also like doing community service and spending time with my family and my church family,” she states. It’s obvious that connecting with children is important to Ms. Jackson. Speaking with Ms. Jackson, it becomes very clear that giving of herself to others is one of her values. It’s also clear that having certain connections can impact someone as a person. While explaining her connections she has with students, Jackson was asked about how working with students impacted her as person and how it uplifts her as well. She says, “I think it’s helped me understand how to help them navigate challenges because I navigated challenges as a young person, so I’m able to help them overcome things that I’ve gone through.”
Another source that’s also a Ballard High School alumni making an impact on students is Haley Gray, one of the English teachers at Ballard, who also shares her personal experiences about her job, her motivation, and how the school makes her feel, while also graduating as a Ballard Bruin. We also get her perspective on how it is to work with students at Ballard. She discusses what motivated to work at the school she graduated from. “I had a really fun high school experience, and I met a lot of great people, I had tons of fantastic teachers, some of whom are still here. It was a really, I thought a really impactful time and I feel like I grew a lot, and so when I became a teacher I was like, I want to get a little bit of experience before I go back to Ballard,” says Gray. Something she also mentions is how Ballard is a very special place for her to be. “I think that there’s a lot of pride that people take, and I know sometimes maybe from the student perspective, you may see that in varying degrees, but the fact that so many people who were students here came back to teach, like that shows how much they value and respect the school,” Gray says. Like Jackson, Gray also verbalizes how making connections with students is important to her as well.
There are quite a few staff at Ballard that were once students here like Jackson. These staff provide connections and demonstrate joy and passion not only at Ballard, but outside school as well. These educators show how a school can make a lifelong impact on students and how the legacy lives on. As students move through the school years, hopefully we can also feel moved to pass on the Bruin legacy of caring, education, community, and giving to the generations that come after us, in the spirit of Kasie Jackson and educators like her.