Position: Retiring Director of Exceptional Student Education
School: Martin County School District
School District: Martin County School District
City, State: Martin County, FL
Music that Describes Vicki
Vicki Jenkins was nominated by her colleague, Lisa Estevez.
"I'm blessed and privileged to have known and worked with Mrs. Jenkins for nearly 20 years," said Estevez. "I met Mrs. Jenkins when she was a program specialist for Martin County School District's Exceptional Student Education Department. I observed her gracefully move into positions of leadership to support students with disabilities."
Mrs. Jenkins became the coordinator for Exceptional Student Education in Martin County School District. She spent a few years as the director of Exceptional Student Education in St Lucie County School District, and she's finishing up her 30 year career serving nearly 3,000 special needs students and families as Martin County School District's Director of Exceptional Student Education.
"When I say 'serving,' I mean selflessly giving her time and knowledge for the betterment of students with special needs," said Estevez. "Mrs. Jenkins is a proven leader running a department of over 100 staff, from office assistants, to related service providers, to contracted personnel. I have been fortunate to be side by side with her for the last six years watching her put the needs of students and programs for students with disabilities over her family and personal needs."
It's not uncommon for Mrs. Jenkins to work a 12 hour day and come into work on weekends to get the job done.
"I’ll never forget the time she had to have a medical procedure done in another state. After the second day of being out, she called me to discuss what needed to be done," said Estevez. "She has put the advice of physicians on the back burner, telling them, 'No, I can’t do that now, I have to go to work.' All in the name of doing what is needed for our exceptional students."
Mrs. Jenkins has chipped away at her goal list and is often heard saying, "I need to get this done for students before I retire." She has always been ahead of the curve with her visionary insight. At the high school level, she has implemented streaming video for students who experience behavior challenges and may not be ready to mainstream into the general education setting. This gave them the opportunity to receive virtual instruction long before COVID-19.
Mrs. Jenkins has been instrumental in building a Mental Health Collaborative, which contracts five or six local agencies to provide much-needed Mental Health services to students whose families have difficulties getting their child services after a long day of work. She identified the barrier and instituted a plan that has been in existence in Martin County School District for close to 20 years.
Another challenge that many students with special needs face is difficulty with reading. Mrs. Jenkins has prioritized programming for students with reading deficits. Upon her return to Martin County School District and a review of ESE performance data, Mrs. Jenkins created a district-level interventionist position to support teachers in providing high-quality, targeted instruction to ESE students in the area of reading. Parallel to that decision, a new research-based reading program was purchased for all ESE students to be used as a supplemental reading curriculum. Trainers were brought into the district to train staff, and all materials were funded through the IDEA grant. Mrs. Jenkins was able to convince the program developer to create a Train the Trainer model for her district in order to sustain implementation of the program over time. To date, MCSD has six Trainers! The data collected is promising, and many of the ESE students have shown improvement.
"In my opinion, the top priority leadership attribute to possess is one of high ethical and moral standards. This is just one of the many leadership qualities inherent within Mrs. Jenkins," said Estevez. "She is well-versed in Special Education Law and will express her opinion based upon the rights of students, even if her opinion is not popular. Her job often involves making decisions that are difficult, but are always in the best interest of our students."
"I could go on forever about everything Mrs. Jenkins has done for our special needs students in Martin County School District," said Estevez. "She is a LifeChanger in our community."