Mrs. Illy McLean – River View Elementary

Our son just went into 2nd grade this year. He is a very high energy little man. He has always been very confident, happy, and outgoing. After school started this year he has really changed. He has become much less confident and happy. This was really concerning us so we spoke with Mrs. McLean and Mrs. Smith, the school counselor.

Mrs Smith recommended we get him checked for ADHD. Mrs. McLean also thought that was a good idea. They made a point that they were not diagnosing him but it would give us a place to work from regardless of what the doctor said. She said she could see him really trying hard to pay attention in class but it was just beyond his control. Our son knew how he should behave and it was really depressing him it couldn’t behave. He was really trying hard. Our son also had a problem with a bully picking on him this year. Between the two problems we were very, very concerned for him.

We went to our Dr. and he recommended some medication for the ADHD. We told Mrs. McLean about it. She agreed to call us everyday to let us know how things went in school that day. She has called every afternoon to let us know what has happened. Some nights it is close to 6 pm before she calls, and she always calls from the school. One afternoon my wife didn’t get the phone call, Mrs. McLean called us before 8 am the next morning to make sure she gave us the update for the prior day. Every time she calls she goes into great detail of what happened during the day.

She is very, very concerned about our boy. We feel so lucky to have her in our son’s life. It is especially amazing to me because she is going to be having a baby soon and will probably be gone for a large portion of the school year. Even though she will only be in our son’s life for a couple of months she has expressed such concern for our son that it has affected us deeply. We feel Mrs. McLean deserves recognition for her great service to our family and the community.

-Adam Hall