There is nothing flashy about first grade. No varsity jackets, no AP courses, no transcripts awaiting college admissions committees. But if you sit long enough in Misty Stecher’s classroom at King Elementary, you begin to understand something profound: this is where trajectories are made. This is where the entire future arcs. And this is where the partnership between a caring teacher, an engaged parent, and a supportive principal becomes a force multiplier that changes everything.

Misty, now in her twentieth year at King and her twenty-second in the district—all in first grade—remembers exactly how she got here. It wasn’t a moment of lightning-bolt revelation but a slow cultivation of empathy. She grew up outside Monmouth at Warren School, surrounded by teachers who loved on her. When she was a junior, she served as a teacher’s aide and absentmindedly sat in the teacher’s chair—only to hear, “I could really see you as a teacher someday.” That small statement planted something. But the deeper seed had been sown long before, in junior high, when she quietly used her allowance to buy name-brand school supplies for a classmate who’d been picked on. She placed them anonymously on his desk. When he tried to give them away—believing they couldn’t possibly be meant for him—Misty helped guide him to accept them.

“I think helping the underdog has always been part of who I am,” she says.

That belief has shaped every corner of her career, especially around reading. Misty is clear-eyed about the stakes: if students aren’t reading on level by third grade, it becomes immensely difficult to catch up. The district’s shift toward strong phonics instruction, including LETRS training, has equipped teachers with research-based tools. But tools alone aren’t enough. Relationships are what light up the learning.

And that’s where parent engagement has become Misty’s superpower.

After the pandemic years disrupted early literacy across the nation, Misty reintroduced nightly reading homework. Students take home an at-level book—something they can read successfully—and parents simply note whether the child read independently, needed support, or listened as the parent read aloud. No penalties. Just a partnership. The growth was immediate and dramatic. Students who completed just 60% of the homework met grade-level standards.

It wasn’t long before Misty began celebrating that success with end-of-year reading events, inviting families into the classroom to see the growth for themselves. Parents showed up—so many that her teammates joined in the following year, turning it into a building-wide celebration.

But Misty didn’t want reading celebrations only at the end of the year; she wanted parents equipped from the start. That spark led to Popcorn with Parents, a September kickoff event where families come into the classroom, learn how to support phonics homework, watch their children read, and understand the journey ahead. Attendance soared: twenty-two families for one event, seventeen for another, nineteen for a third.

“Parents want to be involved,” Misty says. “They just need it to feel non-threatening.”

Enter Harley Martin, the mother of one of Misty’s students and a clinical mental health therapist at Knox College. Harley grew up in Oswego, found refuge in supportive teachers, and now channels that belief into her own son, Xander. She reads with him nightly. She shows up for every event. She donates to the classroom and joins whatever King is doing. “You have to have heart in it,” Harley says. “You can’t do this without heart.”

She is also deeply mindful of the world her son is growing up in—a world of screens, shortened attention spans, and constant digital stimulation. Harley’s undergraduate research focused on smartphones and emotional intelligence, and she’s raising Xander with intentional limits: no YouTube, movies uploaded manually, tablets used only for FaceTime with distant grandparents. “We have one TV,” she says. “It’s about modeling. The phone is a tool.”

Harley and Misty bonded quickly over those shared beliefs, and Harley speaks with genuine gratitude for a teacher as passionate as Misty. “He wants to make her proud,” she says. “But what we’re really building is pride from within. A love of learning, not just achievement.”

Principal Valerie Hawkins sees the transformation up close. “When parents come into the school during the school day, there’s a different energy,” she says. “The kids light up. The staff lights up. Engagement skyrockets. And Misty has brought her whole team into that excitement.”

She would know—she taught first grade alongside Misty, and the two built Parent University together. Bringing that spirit to King has made a visible impact.

The truth is simple, but not simplistic: teachers matter enormously. Parents matter enormously. But when they work in tandem, something exponential happens.

“One positive adult can change a child’s life,” Harley says.
“And often,” she adds, “school is where they find that person.”

For King Elementary, for Misty’s classroom, and for families embracing the work, the message is clear: reading isn’t just a skill. It’s a connection. A collaboration. A calling.

And here, it’s a team effort—with heart at the center.