Harrisonburg City Public Schools Welcome Center

1575 Peach Grove Avenue Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Phone: 540-433-3644 Fax: 540-433-2886

March 6, 2015

Dear Employer,

I am delighted to have an opportunity to share with you my perspective as a

supervisor for Ms. Jacquelyn Gamble.

Ms. Gamble came to work at the HCPS Welcome Center the summer of July
2012 and I have been delighted to rehire her every summer since.

Jacquelyn worked as an Assessment Facilitator here at the Welcome Center.

While the responsibilities of that position demanded the majority of her time
and energies she also did not shy away from the reality that the phrase and
other related duties in any good job description refers to.

Her primary work consisted in conducting assessments of the students we

were registering for school. A number of things stand out about how she
fulfilled her duties in this role:

She was a quick learner, in a very short time she became proficient in
conducting the various assessments we do for our students.

She established good rapport with both the students and their families.
I was particularly impressed by her willingness to use what Spanish
she has to speak with our families. This willingness to both approach
people in their comfort zone and outside of her own expertise did
much to endear her to our Spanish speaking families. In addition with
our younger and shyer children she was marvelous about taking that

Harrisonburg City Public Schools Welcome Center

1575 Peach Grove Avenue Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Phone: 540-433-3644 Fax: 540-433-2886

bit of extra time to sit with them and color or engage prior to having
them leave the room and their parents to go to do the assessment.
She also did a lovely job of acknowledging and speaking with and not
simply to our parents and students.

She made it a practice to use the assessment tools accurately but also
included notes if there were things that did not fit in the box. This kind
of thoroughness is helpful for those instructors that use the
assessments later to tailor instruction.

She re-imagined our Assessment Tools organization and followed

through on this reorganization after reviewing this plan with me. This
has made both the training of other Assessment Facilitators, the use of
these tools and the use of our space more efficient.

She was extremely flexible with her schedule in order to accommodate

the work schedules of our families and the demand at the Welcome
Center.

In addition to fulfilling her primary job responsibilities as Assessment

Facilitator she also took on other projects and willingly filled other roles to
support our registration efforts. These included but were not limited to:

Development and implementation of training documents for use with

subsequent Assessment Facilitators

Distribution of Welcome Center information to a list she researched

and developed of local organizations that serve our mutual public,
school age children and their families.

Research into and documentation of processes to take and use photos

of our Newcomer students.

Preschool Application Facilitator

Receptionist duties when the Welcome Center Secretary was

unavailable.

Harrisonburg City Public Schools Welcome Center

1575 Peach Grove Avenue Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Phone: 540-433-3644 Fax: 540-433-2886

Important work ethic qualities Ms. Gamble demonstrated on a consistent

basis included; punctuality, dependability, accuracy, willingness to receive
critique and use that critique to improve performance, professionalism in
conduct and performance, confidentiality and most importantly kindness.

Jacquelyn has left big shoes to fill here at the Welcome Center and while I
wish her great success in her next endeavors I am very sorry to see her move
on. I am confident that she will be a major contribution to whatever
organization she joins and should you be that institution you will be delighted
to have her on board.

Sincerely,

RaMona Stahl,
HCPS Welcome Center Director