If you’ve spent a morning in the Great Brook School parking lot this fall, you’ve likely been entertained by Mr. K. Whether he’s waving pool noodles and wearing a snorkel and swim trunks, or wiping down windshields as a car washer, as he was Tuesday morning, he’s been bringing a welcome playfulness to his duty as traffic director.
Mr. K., also known as Pete Ketchum, knows that his early morning performances have caught the attention of the whole school community, but he sees them as an opening act for the rest of the day.
“When they get off the bus, that’s kind of Act Two,” he said, followed by a day in which teachers inspire students, and vice versa. School feels especially like a production this year due to the extra COVID-19 precautions, he said, which is how he wound up directing traffic in the first place.
More students are coming to school in cars rather than buses this year per ConVal’s COVID-19 protocol, which created the need for a faculty member to direct cars in the morning. Ketchum played it straight on the first day, outside with a stop and go sign. “The second day I got a little more animated,” he said. “Then I got tired of the sign and brought out some pool noodles. And I love golf. So I brought a golf club,” he said, and started directing traffic with that. “Before I know, it’s the talk of the School Board,” he said, and families were dropping off costumes for him to wear.
“It was not anything that was designed,” he said. “To me, it’s really a community effort, and I’m just a part of that effort to make everybody’s day positive, and put smiles on faces.”
Ketchum has worked part-time as a P.E. teacher for the last couple of years, following a 40 year career in the district teaching elementary and middle school. “I loved every year,” he said, and that it felt good to come back.
There’s currently a school-wide challenge to come up with outfits and themes for him, Ketchum said, and he’s also taking email suggestions.
“Hopefully within reason,” he said. Ketchum is also hoping he finds out how to return props to their owners after he uses them, like a Godzilla costume that was left in a bag for him on Monday.
The remote learning period following Thanksgiving gives him a break from contemplating cold-weather costumes until January, he said, “then I might be Frosty the snowman, I might be a dog sledder,” he said.