We celebrated a Lincoln Middle School student and staff member who exemplifies our District mission, “At D64, our mission is to foster opportunities for discovery, engagement, and growth for all students. We accomplish this by nurturing interdependence, appreciation of differences, and care for self and others.”
Thank you to Lincoln teacher Alyssa LaTragna and 8th-grader Milton Ortiz for being such excellent parts of our D64 community. It was great to recognize the good they’ve been able to do and be a bright spot in our schools.
Ortiz moved to Lincoln for 7th grade, and instead of focusing on the significant change of switching schools, he just hopped into the school community. “This is a student who has just taken the opportunity, not looked at the challenges and all the reasons why things can’t happen, and instead has gotten involved and increased his social circle. He’s learned a lot about himself,” said Lincoln principal David Szwed talking about Ortiz.
“He learned from his mistakes and started to explore and experience a little bit of what was offered to him,” said Szwed. “He is one of our leaders. He’s involved in our school musical as well. Yesterday, our students got out at 2:10, but he was working with our instructional coach on some 3D printing he was doing as part of the MakerSpace Club.”
“Melvin is somebody the staff and the students can easily relate to,” explained Szwed.
LaTragna has been at Lincoln for 8 years, and she, too, has fully immersed herself in everything the Lions have to offer.
“She runs our musical. She’s in charge of all of our vocal music and choruses. She leads our WEB Leaders Program, a group of 8th-grade students who help transition our 6th-graders to middle school. She co-chairs our SEL committee, and I believe she’s in on our middle school review. There are probably about 15 other things she is involved in that make a huge impact on our students, staff, and community,” explained Szwed.
“Everything that she does, she does with a smile. She’s organized and very even keel throughout it all.”
While standing next to LaTragna and addressing the D64 School Board, Szwed mentioned that Lincoln is great because of all the different programs that D64 offers, but more importantly, it’s the people in the building who make it a special place. “Whether those people are staff, students, or even community members. It’s the people who truly make it what it is. Tonight, I want to thank you for allowing me to celebrate two individuals for being fantastic members of the community.”
