I’ve been employed with Virginia Beach City Public Schools for seven years but I’ve been driving buses for 10 years. I’m what they call an unassigned sub driver, so I’m all over the place. I drive for special education and academies, too. I’m on my bus at 4:45 a.m., do the pre-trip, and ready to go by 5:00 a.m., so when anyone in dispatch says, “Hey, I need you to go cover a run,” I’m on it. I like seeing the kids’ smiling faces that I see when I get to the bus stop that there actually is a bus to pick them up.

I’m also a behind-the-wheel instructor for the training department here in transportation. It looks like driving a bus may be challenging to the general public, but once you get inside the bus and start the training they say, “Oh, this is easier than driving my car.” I like teaching them everything they need to know from pre-trip, inside the bus, underneath the bus, and then actually going out to do their DMV test. When they call me and say, “Hey! I passed!” It makes me feel great.

Driving a school bus is fun. It has its challenges but, at the end of the day, it’s rewarding knowing that you have kids on your bus who look up to you and respect you and that a familiar face is there every day and is somebody they can trust.

I’m told you shine your bus?

Yes, I shine my bus. I wax it. The floors are clean, rims and all. I always keep a clean bus. When people see me going down the road they say, “There’s Derreck.” It’s not required. It’s just the pride in that we are a moving advertisement.

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

Spending time with the family, especially since my wife is expecting now. It’s my second child. My son will be 8 at the end of March. His sister is due July 28.

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Social studies in my favorite subject. I’ve always really liked history. I think I get it from my dad and my grandpa because when they were in school history was their favorite subject, too.

My dad and I talk about it a lot, and I like reading a lot of books about history. I’ve just kind of gotten attached to it. My favorite time period is probably World War II because I really like war history. I thought World War II was a really interesting topic.

Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?

I want to be an Air Force pilot and the President. I have a lot of military family. My uncle, who I’m named after, he was a tank driver in the army. My other uncle, who lives out in California, he was in the Navy on battleships and aircraft carriers. And my grandpa, he was in the Vietnam War and he flew helicopters. The reason I want to be a pilot is that going up into the air seems so fascinating to me.

And you want to be President of the United States, too?

I really like taking leadership. I thought the President might be one of the best roles to do for leadership. And I want to be the President because I want to live my life for my sister Ava, who sadly passed away in 2009, and all of my other family members who have passed away.

What will be in your campaign speech?

You want honesty? You’ll get honesty!

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When I lived in North Carolina I did gymnastics, and something I like doing here is horseback riding. My mom only lets me do it in the summer because she doesn’t want me to get cold. My sister usually gets the big horse, even though I want it. Our teacher said that because she’s bigger, she gets the bigger horse and I get the smaller horse.

Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?

I was thinking about being a veterinarian, but I don’t like seeing animals hurt or blood.

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I honestly didn’t ever think I’d be a teacher. This is my second year teaching. I was in the military and when my kids started kindergarten – or when they got to the point where I could volunteer with them, I thought, ‘Oh, I actually like doing this and working with kids.’ I fell in love with working with the kids. You get those aha moments that really make it worth doing it.

I love kindergarten. You get to see the growth. You get to see the kids that come in not writing, not reading, and then by the end of the year, they’re writing sentences and reading books. That’s the biggest reward. You really can see that measurable growth in kindergarten. I started a kindergarten coding club last year. This year I’m doing the STEM robotics with the older students. I try to use different things in the classroom with my kids. We use a lot of Seesaw. In February, we used our Clever badges for the first time, got into PebbleGo, and they researched their own African American historical figure. Then we screen captured it, pushed it into Seesaw and they did a voiceover with a fact about a historical figure. They loved it. They think it’s the coolest thing in the world. And then I had some who figured out how to app smash by themselves. I’ll see it and say, ‘Oh, when did you figure that out?’ They’re amazing.

What did you do in the military?

I was a hospital corpsman – aviation med tech. I just kind of helped take care of the pilots. I was out for about five years before I started volunteering. I have four kids and I had to wait until my youngest started kindergarten. It was not too long after that before I started going to an online school. My husband was still active duty and we were still moving every couple years so that was the best fit for our mobile lifestyle. So, I get these kids that transition and they change schools. I’ve been there with my kids so I know how they feel.

My youngest is in high school right now. We’re almost done. She’s a senior they’re starting college so we’re going to be here for a while. This is the longest we’ve been anywhere. We’ve been here five years.

Is there anything else you’d want people to know?

Don’t underestimate 5-year-olds. They can do a lot more than you think they can.

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I’m an air conditioner mechanic. I went to Lynnhaven Elementary, Plaza Middle and Kellam. I was always handy. I went to trade school and started playing around with tools and stuff like that. Then I started getting interested in controls. I thought it was really neat. It’s really progressed a lot in the last 30 years or so – really the last 10 years, all the digital work you can do. I have computers where I can look right here and control the whole city with them. It’s been pretty interesting.

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I moved here to Virginia in December. What I like about it here is that there are lots of kids, many more than at my old school. It’s really diverse and I have more friends to actually play with.

Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?

Probably an Olympic medalist. I love gymnastics. I like the bars because I get to do my kip and my flyaways and stuff.

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I’m running in the Final Mile. I like that they let you run and walk.

I also like art and music. I like music because I like singing. I like art because I like drawing at my house.

Do you have a favorite thing to draw?

Cats! I love cats.

Do you have any?

No. My mom’s allergic.

I really like working on the high school level. I love working with the teenagers and having that time with them. Many times teachers can see when there’s an issue, but they don’t have the resources or time to fill in that gap. I feel like I can make a difference, and it makes me feel good at the end of the day.

I run the Holiday Connection program in the district. I connect children with sponsors at Christmastime. I feel really proud of that. I’ve been able to connect over 300 kids with sponsors. I make the connection between outside sources, such as businesses, school departments and clubs that want to sponsor a kid. The fall is very exciting for me.

I fell in love with social work during my college internship.  I really enjoy the one-on-one connection I make with people. I get a lot of hugs!

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I’ve been working with Virginia Beach Schools since 1999. I’ve been working nights at Linkhorn Park the whole time. When I first started, I was working at School Plant for a few months and then I got called over here. I’ve been here ever since. All of my principals have been good to me, so I can’t complain.

When I’m not at work, during the day before I come here, I do lawn work. I get up first thing in the morning and do that, stop around 12:00 at the latest, go home, take a rest, and then come here and work until 10:30 at night.

I love coming to work. I’d rather work at night because I’m the type of person who likes being by myself. Working…I do better by myself. You can take your time to do what you have to do.

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I really like learning, especially in P.E. because we do fun activities. Like, when we do Grand Prix, we get to run around the gym. You have four people in a group and you run around to do cardiorespiratory. Once one person comes back, the next person goes – like a relay. I also like my teachers. They make learning fun. My principal is also great.

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When I grow up I want to be a lawyer. In third grade we did a project and our teacher was the judge and we had to solve something, and I liked it. I thought, ‘Oh, I want to be a lawyer.’ I want to help people.

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I’ve been with Virginia Beach City Public Schools for almost 17 years. I’ve been here at Thalia the whole time. My two girls, who are now grown adults, went here. They grew up here. They’ve played ball in the ball fields. I just love this school. I love the staff. I work with an amazing team of PE folks and our administration is wonderful as well.

Obviously, you’re not in it for the money. You’re in it for the love of the children and to maybe just find that one child you can connect with and make a difference somehow in their life because you never know what’s going on in their home life. Unfortunately, it’s not all rosy.

We see every single student every day – kindergarten through fifth grade. As PE staff, we go into the classrooms when teachers are in collaboration. We’re in the cafeteria. I’m at buses. I’m the transportation coordinator also. I see the kids getting on and off the bus. I talk to bus drivers. I coordinate with them. I’m a little all over the place. It’s busy, but I like being busy. I like doing the job. I love being here at the school. Unfortunately, I do have to have a second job but I do love this. Everybody’s asked me, ‘If you have to have a second job, why not give up teaching?’ I don’t think I could. I’m not in it for the money. I think we’re all in it to make a difference for children, maybe the whole family. Sometimes you see all the kids come through here. I’ve been here 16 years and, I haven’t yet, but I’m sure the time will come when I’ll see the child of one of my students come through here. Hopefully they’ll say, ‘Oh, I remember Mrs. Brocki!’ And when I’m out in the stores, everybody says, ‘Mrs. Brocki! Mrs. Brocki!’ My husband says, “Oh, you’re a celebrity now.” I just don’t get that celebrity pay. There’s no other job I would want to have. I’m here because of the students and I love our faculty. That’s why I’m here.

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I really love playing sports and I like playing with my family and my dad. I like video games and I like doing stuff with my family. I like to play basketball, football and soccer. It’s really fun playing basketball because there is a video game I like to play it’s called NBA 2K18, and it reflects how I play basketball on the blacktop.

Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?

I want to be a play pro basketball player, a football player and a soccer player.

All three? Are you going to play one each season?

Well, I’m going to retire from one of the sports and then I’m going to go on to another sport. After soccer, my sports career is done.

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Teaching…I love it. I’ve been doing this for 26 years now. What I love most is when that light bulb finally cuts on for students. In September, you’re getting adjusted. It’s about December, really in January, the light bulb comes on – it’s starting to connect. Recently there was an aha moment for one of my students. We were working on subtraction and he uses base 10 blocks a lot. He said, ‘Mrs. Pitts, I don’t need to use the blocks anymore. I know how to do this.’ I told him to keep them near in case he needed to use them. And he showed me: ‘Look! I learned how to do it!’ And he was just beaming. That’s the part I love most, when that light bulb comes on and they have that confidence that I can do this by myself.

I also love seeing the growth. There are a lot of positives. And then with their home life, they bring a lot to you. You just have to be that person – because they might not have that person in their life, to give them that hug in the morning to start off their day.

If you weren’t teaching what would you be doing?

I started off in nursing and when they presented a cat to dissect, I quickly ran and changed my major. I wanted to do pediatric nursing or neonatal nursing. When they brought me that cat I said I can’t do this. Children have always been my passion – maybe it’s coming from a family of five. I’ve always been around kids. I have three of my own, three girls: one who will graduate this year, one in middle school and a second-grader. I work in children’s church in church. I’m just always around children.

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I play field hockey, which I like. I also do a field hockey club at our school. I like being on a team and being with others so we can all root each other on.

When I grow up I want to be a neurosurgeon.

Why?

This is a really funny thing…I started watching “Grey’s Anatomy” a while ago and I just really liked being able to help someone like that.

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Outside of school, I do gymnastics. I’m a gold so I’m kind of high on the skills. It’s really fun. I’ve done it for five years and I started doing it because of my mom. She did it when she was young and I started talking to her about it and then it kind of got fun for me. I started in Tots and it’s been five years later and I have loads of different skills. I do bars, beam, floor and vault. I compete at Chesapeake Ocean Tumblers. My goal is to at least do gymnastics for LSU in college and then go to the Olympics in 2024.

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This is my 11^th year at Landstown and with the school division. I’ve enjoyed it. Working as a security assistant, it’s different every day. There are different challenges, but the positives of our students outweigh the negatives, by far. You get to interact with all the students in a different way and that’s what I appreciate most about the job. There’s a good diversity here.

When I’m not here, I’m either with family or I’m at the church working with different things we have going on in the community. I’m a youth pastor. I’ve been the youth pastor at my church for about 7 years now. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Theology with a focus on youth ministry and with minors in Music Technology and Drama. I get to work with youth when I’m not here as well. I think that’s what I like most about my job here – I get to continue working with teens in a different way but still on a personal level. With both of my jobs, you’re helping them meet their needs in a different way.

The biggest thing with my work is that I’m vested not just because of the students here at Landstown but because my wife is a teacher; my son is a second-grader; I have nieces and nephews; my sister-in-law is a teacher; and my brother works for the school system as well. So we’re all kind of vested in safety, security and education, and what happens is important for a lot of different reasons.

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Every time I get to talk to somebody new or if I find out something new about somebody, that’s something that’s interesting for me. If do something new, that’s interesting for me. If I do something for my family, that’s interesting. I just enjoy life. I enjoy meeting new people and doing new stuff. I mean, when I came to the school system 40 years ago they had manual typewriters.  

I started in library processing. I was actually a cooperative education student for them [when I was in high school]. And then a few months later, I managed to get a job with them. Now I work in School Plant.

What do you see as the biggest change in the 40 years that you’ve been with the school division?

Technology really has been the biggest change. And the students. Needless to say, as technology grows the students become even smarter. Trying to keep ahead of them is interesting.

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When I grow up my picture is going to be on this wall.

What will it say?

Justice is the best inventor. He makes cool robots.

Something I’m really passionate about doing is my job as class president. I’ve been involved since the beginning of high school. I’m not really sure what I want do as a career but that kind of leadership experience – like, working with a lot of different people inside of school and outside of school, and planning events and getting close to the faculty who sponsor our class – has really helped me grow as a leader. It’s something that I really value that the school system has given me. I definitely want to continue having a leadership role in college.

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I like to go to stations at school. I do Imagine Learning and I write sentences and I read books.

What do you like to do when you’re not at school?

I like to hula hoop. We put on music at home and I hula hoop.

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I’m interested in getting involved in a lot of stuff. Outside of school, I do strings and I play basketball; I play guard positions. I think it’s important to get involved in a lot of things because when I grow up I want to get a scholarship to really good schools, like UCLA, and I think it’s important because I really want to go to a college out of state. I don’t want to go to a college in state because I like big opportunities. Also, I’m in SCA, Ecology Club; I’m on the news team and I’m a safety patrol. I do a lot of things so I can get involved in the school and so people can know me, and they can come talk to me if they have a problem. In high school I want to get involved in a lot of things because that helps you get into a good college. I always focus on my future. I think it’s important to be involved in a lot of things.

UCLA is really far away. What does your family think about that?

My mom thinks I should shoot for my dreams, and I think it’s important for your family to encourage you to do things. Your family should encourage you to do things and shoot for the stars so you can be better than what other people have done. Like my mom, she’s a nurse; she’s an LPN. I think that’s really a good goal to achieve. And my sister, she’s a dentist. She just went to college for that. And my brother, he’s going to be a welder. So my mom encourages us to shoot for the stars and do what we want to do. So I think it’s very important for your family to encourage you.

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I love my job. I love it. This is my 19^th year here at White Oaks and I love the school; I love the kids. I love to see them succeed – that’s my favorite thing. And I love kindergarten best of all. I used to work as an assistant in PE but I love kindergarten best because you come in and they’re really little babies. Then they just look so grown at the end of the year. They can’t write their name; they don’t know numbers; they can’t count; and they counted to 100 for us this week. You see the growth probably, to me, like no other grade. I liked being a PE assistant because I got to know the entire school, but every morning Ms. Christman and I are bombarded with at least 15 kids coming in for hugs. They come in to get hugs and whatever they need, that little boost to go. I love everything about it. We had one little girl in tears this week after her mom came to lunch and left. So I told her, ‘You know Ms. Christman’s your school mom and I’m your school grandma’ – I moved up to grandma. I said, ‘We’ll take care of you. You’ll be okay.’ We do whatever we need to do…hugs, Band-Aids.

I love dressing up, as you can see. I take every opportunity to dress up. This is Black History Month and Dr. Ireland, she’s been dressing up. I told her I have a couple outfits that I’m going to wear and we got a picture together. We had Book Character Day, and Ms. Christman and I were Fly Guy. We had wings and big eyes.

I mean, I’ll tell you – my husband will tell you, my granddaughter will tell you – my life is this school. It really is. I love getting up and coming to work.

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I received my Eagle Scout designation recently. To earn Eagle Scout, you have to earn several ranks, earning merit badges and learning skills along the way. A main thing about Eagle Scout is that you have to run a project. You have to meet with the city and you have to get volunteers and you get it approved by committee at your troop and then you essentially run the project and get it done. It’s really a great feeling to see, I guess, all that hard work paying off and watching the project come to life. My project was at the West Neck Creek Natural Area and we were repairing a trail, or completely restoring a trail. It was a horse trail and was worn down, very muddy and it was hard to see where the trail started and ended so we completely fixed that up, mulched it and spruced the place up.

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I want to be a teacher. I want to teach people.

What would be some of the important rules in your classroom?

They should act good and be kind to their friends.

Why is that important?

Because we need people to be kind. If they’re not kind, the teacher can call the principal and tell her, and she can call their mom to pick them up and take them home.

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I enjoy my job – seeing the children from kindergarten all the way to high school, what they’ve become, what they’re going to do. I think they figure I’m reliable. I’m there every day.  And, if I’m not on the bus at the elementary school, they won’t get on the bus. If I’m not sitting in that seat, you can forget it. They just stand there.

We heard you haven’t taken a day of sick leave in your career. What motivates you to be here every day?

The students – to get them their schools so they can get an education. They are the future.

I enjoy it. Plus, I’m up early. I walk my dog at 4 a.m., and then I come home and get ready to go to work and do my pre-trip and everything. I drive students to Princess Anne High School, Pembroke Elementary, Pembroke Meadows Elementary and Independence Middle. One of my students recently lost his father in an accident. I understand he’s staying with relatives in another city, so I asked the school what I could do to help and I donated money.

Has there ever been a day when you thought you couldn’t go to work?

No, not really.

What’s your secret?

Walking. Walking! I have a golden retriever that you have to walk. He’ll go get his leash and he’ll stand there with those big, brown eyes. And, no matter how you feel, you’ve got to go. We usually walk 2 to 2.5 miles. We try to do it three times a day.

How long will you drive your bus?

As long as I feel well.

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I was born and raised here in Virginia Beach. I lived in Pungo my whole life. I attended Virginia Beach schools: Creeds, Trantwood and John B. Dey. I graduated from Kellam High School – the old Kellam High School – and that’s where I met my wife.  I’m very proud of my family because my wife is an intellectual disability teacher at Corporate Landing Middle and my son just became the assistant principal at Landstown High School last week. My parents still live in Pungo. They’re originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. My father worked here at the school system for many years and he retired from here. He was in the carpentry shop. He ran that for many years when the old School Plant used to be at Oceana. Then, he came here. He was in tile and carpet when he retired.

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I like our elective classes; I really like Tech Ed. I like building stuff and being able to create stuff. I like carpentry, building with wood. I’ve built a lot with my uncle because he is fixing up his house here and there. We’ve built two decks already. I think it’s really cool to see people getting into that kind of stuff.

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I want to be a famous volleyball player. I like to play volleyball. I’ve played for two seasons. My first season I was kind of nervous, but then I felt comfortable with the group of people because I knew them and they went to school with me. I found out it was my sport because I was really good at it. I was playing T-ball then, since I was 3 or something. Then, when I was in kid pitch, I got hit in the mouth and my tooth was dangling – one of my grown-up teeth. Then I started playing volleyball.

What makes somebody good at volleyball?

You are aggressive. I’m really aggressive. And then you wear knee pads and you slide across the floor, so I’m good at that, of course. I’m good at hitting it. I’m good at serving it overhand. I’m the only one on my team that can serve overhand.

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My favorite class has to be Spanish because I have too much culture around me not to speak the language. My family, we come from the islands. My dad’s side of the family comes from Montserrat and my mom’s side of the family comes from Puerto Rico. My mom’s dad’s family comes from Jamaica. I have a lot of culture around me. I just want to build up so I can communicate with them in all the ways they were used to when they were younger.

Have you thought about what you want to do when you get older?

I’ve always wanted to make cars and just build them. I think it would be cool to invent an actual hybrid car – like cross two brands of cars into one car, half and half. Let’s say, I’ll take a Bugatti and a Nissan. I’ll put the engine of the Bugatti inside of the Nissan and make it really dope. It would be called the Bugatti GT-R because there is a Nissan Skyline GT-R. That would be really cool.

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I like waking up every day and coming to school, having fun at school and outside of school. I like going out with my family and friends and enjoy time that I have with my family. We’re very close. I also like playing sports at school – soccer.

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