Name: Alexandra Ham
City of residence: Johnstown
Occupation: District instructional specialist, MTSS coordinator, truancy liaison and online administrator at Weld RE-5J School District
What brought you to Johnstown?
We moved to Johnstown in 2018. My husband is a third- or fourth-generation Colorado native, and we met at Colorado State University. When we were ready to look for a house, he had a friend here in Johnstown, so we ended up buying our first home here.
What do you do for work?
I work for the Weld RE-5J School District, which serves Johnstown and Milliken and a little bit of the surrounding areas. As the MTSS coordinator—or multi-tiered system of supports—my goal is to make sure that we have structures in place so that all students can be successful. We picture it like a triangle: Generally, students fall into tier one, and some students need tier two. A few students need tier three. This year I’ve been talking a lot about what tier zero might look like, so before we even get you to school, what do you need to be successful before you walk in our doors?
What services fall under MTSS?
Colorado pictures MTSS as an umbrella, and there are a bunch of things that fall under it, including family-school-community partnerships, response to intervention and positive behavioral intervention systems. Basically, the general kid who has a good base at home can walk in the doors and probably learn what a teacher is going to teach them. If there’s some obstacle in their way, we try our best to have systems and structures in place so that we can meet them where they’re at and have them learning at the same level as their peers despite whatever’s going on at home. I oversee the systems and structures to hopefully make that happen.
What else do you do in your role with the Weld RE-5J School District?
I am the truancy liaison for the district, so if your student is not coming to school, it’s my job to figure out why and help you overcome those barriers. I am also our justice engaged youth liaison, child welfare education liaison and McKinney-Vento liaison, so I work with foster students and students who qualify as homeless, which in Colorado does not necessarily mean that you don’t live in a house. It’s unstable or unsuitable housing as well. We have a lot of families in our area who are doubled up, so they’re living with other families not by choice. I oversee a couple of grants as well. I started the Cottage Collective this year, which has been really fun.
How did the Cottage Collective start?
I was an assistant principal at the high school here in town for two years, then I transitioned over to the district office a year ago. Some families got a hold of me and said “Hey, we really need help. Do you have resources for things like rent and utilities?” As a school district, that’s not within our purview, so we can’t pay your rent, but we can certainly help you find resources. But a lot of families were asking for very basic needs—socks, underwear, hygiene products—things that break your heart, and frankly, things you would hope that every student would have access to.
It grew into this fun little thing. Hays Market did a roundup challenge for us and donated funds, so we were able to start purchasing some items for students, which was incredible. And then Buc-ee’s…people lose money at Buc-ee’s a lot. I don’t know how you lose money, but they are required to do something with that money, and it went to the school district. So that allowed me to start purchasing items for families as well. We have a really awesome buy nothing group in our area too. I morphed those ideas into a clothing exchange. It was highly successful, but I had mountains of clothes left over, and our assistant superintendent took a look at my beautiful pile of clothing and said “We have to figure something out with this.”
We had a few different ideas. The Weld Trust approached us about doing a food pantry, and we went and toured the food pantries in Greeley-Evans School District 6. They have a really awesome setup that wasn’t quite what we wanted, and it grew into this wonderful idea that is now the Cottage Collective.
How does the Cottage Collective work?
It’s the honor system, and everything is free. Any family in the school district can access it. Some of the items we purchase are only for students in the district—those are basic hygiene supplies and household supplies—but clothing and food is all donated, so that is open to anyone in Johnstown and Milliken, regardless of their affiliation with the school district. We do have a small form for folks to fill out for data collection, but you don’t have to prove who you are, and we’re not questioning you.
Tell us about your experience winning Johnstown/Milliken Woman of the Year.
Our assistant superintendent connected me with Amy Tallent, who had a wonderful project in mind regarding students helping seniors in the community. I had enough on my plate that I left it in my unreads in my inbox, then it came closer to summer, when I finally had some free time, and I was like, “I’m going to circle back on this.” Amy was so polite; she very kindly said “Thanks for your interest. I’ve already moved forward with this project, but I’d be curious to talk to you about other things.” I introduced her to the Cottage Collective and what we were doing there, and we connected and found that we have a similar heart for the type of work that we do. She invited me to join the brand-new Johnstown-Milliken Community Foundation, which is very exciting to be a part of, and completely surprised me with this very flattering award.
Why are you so passionate about providing resources for families in need?
My mom is a retired nurse, so I grew up with the mindset that we help everyone always. She was always pulling over at accidents, and I’d be in the back of the car waiting for her to finish taking care of someone until an ambulance arrived. She was always very calm in an emergency situation. So that heart for giving has always been a part of how I was raised. When I started my teaching career, I was at the alternative high school in Loveland, Harold Ferguson High School, and those students taught me a lot about what life could look like, other than the way that I had lived it.
I remember student teaching up at Poudre Community Academy in Fort Collins, and a student shared a story about going to bed early because they were tired and waking up at 2 a.m. to bake a cake. I thought that was interesting and asked some questions, like “Did you put any frosting on it?” The further we got into the story, the more I realized the student baked a cake because that was all they had at their home. That was such an eye-opening moment for me. I’ve lived a very fortunate life. I’ve never gone hungry, and I realized there’s so many people in our area who have. The fact that these students could go through unimaginable journeys and still show up for school and sit in my classroom and want to learn from me really reframed the way that I think about education and life in general.
What do you admire most about the teachers in your district?
Teachers certainly don’t get into it for the pay and benefits. It is nice to have a summer break, but most of our teachers have expertise in so many areas, and they could be making a lot more money pursuing those areas. They do it because they love children and want to see children succeed. They want to help develop our young people into amazing adults. You have to love that about every teacher you meet. I love that teachers bring in their own personalities, so you can have 20 math teachers, and they’re all going to do it a little differently. They help shape a student’s journey and play a role in who that student becomes. When you think back and ask people, “Who made a difference in your life?” there’s almost always a teacher in there somewhere. We have lots of those teachers in our district, so I love that about them.
What advice do you have for new teachers?
Enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy the children, it’s not going to be the role for you. Take the time to appreciate what you can learn from them and what they can learn from you. Have fun in a pretty awesome role with a lot of potential to impact many, many people.
In what other ways are you involved in the community?
I have two little children, 3 and 5, and we do a lot in the community. You think of Johnstown as a small town, but we actually have a lot here, especially for families with young children. We’ve been doing jiu-jitsu over at Thompson Rivers Parks and Rec, and we’ve got swim lessons through them too. We’ve done things with the YMCA as well. We’re currently doing gymnastics over at Gymstarz Elite, which is hilarious with two little boys. It’s fun to be in different facets of the community, seeing people you know from work, and of course, when you work in a small town, you start to recognize faces everywhere you go.
What do you love most about Johnstown?
My favorite story that I tell people when they ask about Johnstown is that a couple years back, we had a really horrible situation for a family where their house burned down unexpectedly, and the school district put out a memo, and all of our schools put out a memo that we would accept donations to support this family. Within four hours, we were putting out a memo saying “Please stop bringing donations; we’ve been overwhelmed.” That really sums up what this community does. We always come together whenever a tragedy happens. People step up. Even when there’s not a tragedy, people are just here for each other. It’s called “The Community That Cares,” and that shows up when it really matters.
If you had a friend or a family member visiting for the weekend, what are some things you would take them to go do?
I absolutely love coming to B’s Coffee. I also like Black Sheep for crêpes. It’s fun that we have a crêpe store in town. If you’re venturing a little further out, there’s a pretty cool sheep farm about 10 or 15 minutes down the road. We took some family there last year, and it happened to be right during lambing season, so we got to watch a lamb being born, which was really cool. I love showing off the ag heart of our community, so anytime we can get to a farm, I’m always a fan of that.
Is there anything you’re looking forward to as we head into late summer and fall?
Our oldest is starting kindergarten this year, so that’ll be a big change for all of us, but we’re very excited to join him on that adventure. We love the fall, and we’re very outdoorsy sports people, so we’ll be up in the mountains a lot for deer season. We do a family trip every year for our deer camp. And then, of course the boys love pumpkin season, so we’re already talking about when we get to go back to the pumpkin patch.
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