Posters with drawings of how the lips and mouth should look when certain word sounds are spoken are placed around the room of the Learning Center at Anderson Heights Elementary School.

Rita Mitchell, the Blended Service Coordinator and Reading Specialist with the Cascade Union Elementary School, knows how students can form poor speech habits by not forming their mouth and tongue correctly. She services the speech program at both Anderson Heights and Verde Vale Elementary schools.

Mitchell is in her fifth year as a reading specialist, but taught first grade at Verde Vale school for four years and second grade at Anderson heights for three years.

Mitchell, who was a “Literacy Coach” in the district, said she “was in the right place at the right time” when the Blended Service Model came into being.

“With ‘blended service’ now all children can be helped with reading where, in the past, one had to be identified over a longer period of time before they could receive help,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell received her bachelor’s degree from Long Beach State and went on to Simpson University for her teaching credentials.

She lived in both Southern California and Colorado and said she wanted to “go back to the mountains,” so the Anderson area was a happy balance. She loves the climate here and travels to the beaches and to the mountains. She enjoys hiking and fishing and has a vacation spot by Lake McCumber.

Name: Rita Mitchell.

Born: Denver, Colorado, 1956.

Occupation: Reading Specialist — Teacher: Blended Service Coordinator for Anderson Heights and Verde Vale Elementary.

Marital Status: Married.

Family: Husband: Michael, children: Rebecca 27, Matthew 26, Jessica 25, Brent 25, Katey 23, and son-in-law David 23.

Pets: A cat, Vision who is 13 1/2 years old.

My worst job: Pulling weeds as a child.

My first job: Babysitting.

In my spare time I: Love to camp, hike, fish, read and cook, and most of all visit with our children.

My favorite book: I have many. My favorite children’s book is “The Kissing Hand.”

My favorite movie: Several favorites, but “White Christmas” is one that I watched with my five sisters and mom growing up and I have passed this tradition on to my own daughters.

My favorite recording artist: Female: Emmy Lou Harris; male: Elton John.

My dream car: SUV Volvo — it feels safe and is comfortable to ride in.

My friends like me because: I listen, I care and I can be trusted.

If stranded on a deserted island, I would want: my husband and resources to have food.

The one thing in life I’ve learned is: A lot of life lessons along the way but the most important one is that life is precious and every moment is important.

The best advice my parents gave me: Was the way they have lived their lives more so than sharing specific words of wisdom. It was their unending love and devotion to their family that has been their best advice.

My most embarrassing moment was: When I was in grade school I told my friends I was moving (lie), and one of my friends fathers’ was a real estate agent. He asked my parents if he could list our house, that he heard we were moving. That was a very long evening.

My most irrational act: One would be dying my hair black, when I was in high school, and then watch it slowly turn green.

My most valued material possession: A library table my mom bought for $5 at a garage sale for me when I first moved away from home. She stripped the thick pea green paint for me and it turned out to be an antique oak library table.

What I like best about the North State: The mountains.

My hero is: Mother Teresa.

My pet peeve is: Finger tapping while someone is talking.

My fantasy is: To live with my husband in a home that is on a meadow that faces Lassen Peak and be able to travel.

If I could change one thing about myself I would: Not worry so much.

The one thing Shasta County needs most is: Perhaps more rain this year.

The most enjoyable thing about life is: The unexpected and finding the good in it and then embracing it.

Gary Scriven was always torn between his desire to create and his love of teaching. Before becoming the art teacher at Anderson Middle School (AMS), Scriven created, displayed and sold artwork while he lived in the Eureka area. He is proficient in watercolors, acrylics and oils but prefers to work in oils. He had one of his paintings displayed in the Senators’ Gallery in Sacramento.

The murals at AMS adorn the walls in the library and several outside walls. There are big murals and a few small cougar heads over the doors and one entire outside wall of the “400 wing” on the campus. The cougar is the school mascot and Scriven likes to go to the zoo in Auburn to take photographs to use in the mural work.

Most of the murals at the school are done by the students in Scriven’s art classes. Scriven did the two cougar murals in the library. He teaches three periods of art, as well as language arts and reading.

Scriven, a 1961 graduate of Arcadia High School, helped make backdrops for theatre productions while he was still in school. He continues today to do murals for his church, the First Church of the Nazarene in Redding, for its Christmas Connection.

“I like to work big,” Scriven said. “Sometimes there are three sets of backdrops 12 feet high by 52 feet long at the church,” he said.

The art teacher started teaching 10 years ago when he completed his degree at Simpson University and then went through their credentialing program to teach. With his credits from the College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State, he was able to qualify as a supervisor in music and art.

“I was fortunate to find a school district that wants to educate the whole person, and the arts fit into this district’s philosophy.”

Scriven and his wife, Catherine, have 14 grandchildren.