New administrator to the Jefferson-Scranton and East Greene school districts, Maranda Van Cleave has inspired students through new programs that she’s started at East Greene Elementary and Greene County Intermediate School.

She started lunch talks with students when she invites a handful of youngsters into her office during lunch and advisor times to chat about what they like about school, what kinds of clubs they would like to be involved with and get feedback from her students.

Another important program she started this school year is reading to different classes once a month.  She talks about why she wanted to have a program like this to make herself more visible to her students.

“My passion lays in with getting into the classroom, getting down and working with students.  And one thing I wanted to establish right away was getting into the classrooms every month and reading books and having those books connect back into kind of this idea of creating this climate and culture that I desire.”

Her plans are to read a variety of different books that help students understanding how to become better people and to see adults not only as people with authority but as their friends.