Teacher a guardian angel
Published: December 21, 2005
As her children helped put their family’s presents under the Christmas tree, Veronica Flores wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Before Deborah Meylan, a first-grade teacher at Heights Elementary School, and her colleague, Lisa Abono, arrived, the Flores’ living-room floor was empty. And it would have stayed that way for the holiday if it wasn’t for the efforts of Meylan and her cohorts. About 10 minutes later, the room overflowed with gifts.
“There were a lot of people who wanted you to have a good Christmas,” Meylan said. “One rule: It all stays with you. No sharing this year.”
Meylan then handed Flores a $100 gift card for groceries.
“It’s just so much,” the mother of three said.
“It’s going to be a great Christmas, and everyone deserves to have at least one,” said Meylan, who has taught at Heights for 13 years. She then gave Flores a hug and said good-bye, before making her next delivery.
For the 10th year, Meylan helped organize a Christmas gift and food program at Heights, delivering presents to eight families who otherwise may have had to tell their children that Santa Claus wasn’t coming this year. Attracting donations from teachers, friends, Cub Scouts, the Rotary Club and elsewhere, Meylan and her helpers spend $200 or more on each child.
“We want to make sure it’s a Christmas they’ll never forget,” she said. “It’s as big as any Christmas my kids will get.”
But it’s not just the holiday season that stokes Meylan’s giving spirit. Because of that, Meylan, 37, was one of three Contra Costa teachers this fall to receive a $10,000 award from the Warren W. Eukel Teacher Trust, given to teachers who show extraordinary commitment to their students.
“She’s never met a stranger,” said Pittsburg schools Superintendent Reed McLaughlin. “It’s setting a standard. If they (students) don’t set the bar and try to attain it, she’ll pull them along. She’s a real role model for the kids.”
Whether it’s her animated reading style or her lively everyday-life lessons, Meylan strives to create a nurturing and caring environment where children learn — without the drag of feeling like they’re being taught, Abono said. Meylan starts and ends the day at the classroom door, where she gives each child a hug hello or good-bye. Lynne Plunkett, the principal at Heights Elementary, said Meylan’s strength is that she isn’t limited by contractual constraints.
“She goes above and beyond to make sure kids have what they need to get a good education,” Plunkett said. “She’s one of those people you don’t want to let go out of your life.”
When she learned the reason why a second-grader was falling asleep in class, for instance, Meylan had the girl and her two siblings move in with her own family for two weeks. The 7-year-old was taking care of her 6-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother while their father worked two jobs and visited their mother who was dying from cancer in a hospital. Like others she’s made a connection with, Meylan keeps in touch with her former student, who is now in the eighth grade and lives in Southern California.
Another such student is Devonna Grays, 22. As a fifth-grader reading at a third-grade level, Grays would go to Meylan’s classroom after school to hang out. Over the years Meylan not only helped her improve her reading, she helped Grays set goals. They would go shopping together, get manicures and do “everything a mom and daughter were supposed to do,” Grays said.
Meylan assisted Grays in applying to college, paid for her graduation announcements and even helped her garner scholarship money.
“I called her my guardian angel because she just popped up in my life,” Grays said. “The funny thing is, I didn’t have her for my first-grade teacher.”
Although some of the disadvantaged kids come from a different background than hers, Meylan said she can relate.
“I can’t walk in their shoes, but I can empathize with the shadows of where they’ve been,” she said. “I do it because it needs to be done.”
Meylan’s mother, Sheila Malloy, said much of that attitude has to do with the problems her daughter overcame — even though she wasn’t even aware of them. Malloy didn’t tell her daughter that she suffered from dyslexia until about a week before Meylan graduated from high school.
“I felt that if I told her [she had dyslexia], knowing the type of person she was at the ripe old age of 7, she was bright enough to use it as an excuse,” Malloy said. “If she had known that, I don’t know if she would have used all the great skills she has an a human being.”
Meylan wanted to be a teacher from the time she was in first grade. But when Meylan’s master teacher said her first assignment would be teaching first grade, she said no way. When Meylan was looking for her first job, the only thing open in the district that year was, of course, first grade. She decided to stick with that grade because it’s a fundamental time for teaching a child to read.
“I never thought I’d teach first grade,” she said, adding that she was at first turned off by the idea of teaching kids how to spell the word “I.” “Thirteen years later, I’m still teaching how to spell ‘I.’”
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