Where I’m From: Kelsey Halverson, Cavett Elementary

This is the latest in a series of stories, “Where I’m From,” about LPS elementary school teachers who returned to teach at their old schools.

Aug. 14, 2017, the first day of school and the first day of teaching fifth grade at Cavett Elementary School for Kelsey Halverson. She returned to the school she attended, the school she held close to her heart. The memories came flooding back during the all-school assembly to kick off the year.

As everyone started to sing the school song, Halverson realized she still knew every word.

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

Cavett Elementary!

“It felt pretty surreal to be back,” she recalls.

She was a second grader at Cavett when it opened in 1995. She remembers touring the school that summer and how excited she was to be part of something new. She spent the next five years making memories that will last a lifetime: voting for the school mascot and colors; watching the principal at the time, Barb Jacobson, do cartwheels; posing for an all-school aerial photo on the basketball court; participating in student council, chorus, band and after-school clubs.

“I just remember how much fun I had at school as a child so I try to replicate that with my own students now,” Halverson said. “I believe school should be memorable and fun because that is exactly what I experienced.”

Shout it, shout it, shout it, shout it 

Shout it 'til you fly!

Through the years, the best will always be! Hey!

She loves sharing memories with students. She tells them how it used to be fields of sunflowers to the west of the school. She and her friends would sneak in caterpillars after recess and try to hide them in their pencil boxes. The fields are long gone but the trees she and her classmates helped plant are still there. 

There are multiple teachers still at Cavett from when she was a student, including one of her fellow fifth-grade teachers. Every year she has students guess which fifth-grade teacher’s name was included on her fifth-grade report cards.

“Every year I tell the students that fun fact but I never tell them who,” she said. “It’s really fun to watch them guess.” (Stephany Madsen Martinez - shhhh.)

Halverson is now raising another Cavett Cardinal. Her daughter started preschool this year. Add all this up - the past and the present - and it equals a teacher who couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

“The teachers, staff members, families and surrounding businesses are so supportive. The school is full of really dedicated teachers that go above and beyond to love their students and support them as they learn and grow,” she said. “I felt that love as a student from so many of my teachers and I hope students today feel that same love here at Cavett.”

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

With a C-A-V and an E-T-T,

Cavett Elementary!


Published: September 29, 2020, Updated: September 29, 2020