The Magic of Miss KK

KK is "technically" our Media Specialist but, oh, so much more!

There are so many incredible folks that make Chets Creek tick but "Miss KK" is the magic.  Describing KK Cherney is like trying to catch stardust - it's impossible to put words to qualities that  are so elusive, so mysterious.  Eternally positive, she is the memory maker.

KK, the Book Fairy

I live in the area where I work, so I am often out in the neighborhood with my Chets Creek shirt or running errands right after school with my ID still attached, and I have often run into former Creekers out in the working world - often teens checking me out at Publix or Target!  They will look at my shirt or tag and say, "Oh, you work at Chets Creek.  I went to Chets Creek..." and the question that ALWAYS follows is, "Is 'Miss KK' still there?"  Then they go into some special memory that always has something to do with KK.  She's just one of those people that you never forget - a one-of-a-kind, a bigger-than-life, a once-in-a-lifetime.  Susan Phillips says that KK farts rainbows and sunshine! And honestly, it's true!

KK technically is our Media Specialist and when  she reads a story it just grabs you and takes you right into that book.  You live with her in that story until she lets you go.  She sprinkles her sparkly magic so that even the most reluctant reader embraces reading, just because "Miss KK said so."  However, as the years have passed, her role has evolved into more of a Tech Specialist, a role that I'm sure she never imagined, but she has graciously filled because of the need.  Her Media Center has become a revolving stage of Library and Tech Lab and goes up and down on a daily basis.  People don't always believe it, but Chets is extremely technically challenged with outdated infrastructure and hardware that would drive most faculties mad, except... we have KK.  She convinces people all over the county (and anywhere else she can find them) with her charm and savvy into helping us.  She piece meals and reworks and creatively manages an impossible system.  She wraps our frustrations in a bundle of creative possibilities, so that we don't self-destruct, and she usually manages it with a smile and an absolute can-do attitude.

KK lives her life with such abandonment.  She never hears the word "No" and she sincerely believes that anything is possible.  She is full of energy and enthusiasm - like the Energizer bunny - embracing both whimsy and real determination.  She embraces life with a passion that is unsurpassed.  She is driven by a spiritual, a moral compass.  She's never met a stranger and has no inhabitations about stepping right up and talking to anyone, anywhere - doesn't really matter who they are or where she is!  When you go anywhere with KK, you realize that she knows EVERYBODY and she can work a room better than any politician that I have ever met!  She makes friends so easily and somehow just magically goes right to a person's heart and grabs it. People that meet KK never forget her!

KK as "Peaceful Waters" in the PowWow teepee
making memories with the talking stick. 
If you've ever been there, you never forget!

The indomitable Miss KK is the person that brings the theme alive each year at the Creek - whether it is the magical Land of Oz or the comical circus, she's the one that brings the vision to life in our lobby and in the Media Center and, really, throughout the entire building.  She's the one that provides  the over-the-top WOW events for our children and brings authors that we never imagined meeting, right into our lives. When you go to her about a simple idea, she suddenly dreams it into a major event.  One year we told her we were going to have a space-themed day in first grade and the next thing we knew she had storm troopers escorting us in a parade and a man-made planetarium that first graders climbed into so they could watch the night stars!  Another time we told her we needed a center for PowWow and she imagined a life sized teepee that has become a tradition that represents the epitome of Chets Creek life.  I could go on and on about how KK brings life to every event at our school, every single day, but there is so much more to KK than her bigger-than-life personality and ideas.

Children just can't take their eyes off  KK!

KK has a heart that is bigger than anyone can imagine.  She feels so deeply for children and just like with adults, she goes right for the heart.  Children trust her.  They love her.  They are mesmerized by her, and they are changed forever when they meet her.  There is not a faculty child that has ever been to Chets or that returns to Chets that doesn't make a beeline to see Miss KK.  And KK is just as glad to see them.  She embraces and hugs and asks about every single thing they have done since she saw them last, like she has nothing else in this world to do but listen to them. She believes in them and they know it.  They feel her warmth, her soul, and her pure love.   KK is just that memorable to every student at Chets, but to students that struggle.... she is the magic that heals them.  She has taken so many of our babies that struggle academically or that struggle with family life or that struggle with friends - children that are hurting, scared, needy - and turned their lives around.  They talk to her and tell her things they wouldn't tell another soul.  They just know she can help and she does.  I tell you, she is magic!

If I could ask for anything in this world, it would be that every single child could go to a school where they could experience at least one relationship during their school life with an adult like KK.  Every single child deserves to feel the oozing of  love, trust, security and safety that KK provides to our children at Chets.  I don't know how we got so lucky to have KK as one of our founding teachers, but maybe that is because she was part of the vision of what Chets was to become from the very beginning (Thank you Dr. Stahlman!)  It's always been about taking risks and about relationships that produce radical results.  We are blessed indeed!