More than 290 years of combined experience will be leaving Mount Vernon Schools at the end of this school year.
The retirees from the district were honored in a district service awards ceremony Wednesday, May 25, at Mount Vernon Schools. The retirees honored include Lisa Alger, Chiara Burke, Matt Burke, Julie Dye, Lisa Greif, Denise Havill, Kristi Keast, Suzette Kragenbrink, Jo Nowak-Thompson, Susan Maurice, Sue Smith and Cathy Steines.
Two of the retirees – Chiara Burke and Matt Burke – were recognized in absentia.
Superintendent Greg Batenhorst spoke on behalf of Matt Burke’s work as business manager for the district.
“It’s not common for a business manager of a school to have a 24 year career,” Batenhorst said. “At other districts, they may have gone through two or three business managers in that time frame.”
Batenhorst said that Matt was always mindful of the staff in many of the decisions he made, including the brutal winter of 2019 when schools were closed for almost a week due to cold conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, Batenhorst said Matt erred on the side of making sure teachers and staff had paychecks.
Patty Mote spoke about Chiara Burke’s experience as a secretary at Mount Vernon Middle School.
Chiara’s wealth of knowledge on how things had been done at the middle school office in her 25 years made her the “heart and the soul of the middle school building.”
If there was something that needed to be fixed, many in the office would turn to Chiara, as her experience going through similar situations gave her the answers.
Maurice had 19 years of teaching at Mount Vernon Schools. She began as a substitute teacher, and eventually moved to special education, math and science teacher for the district.
Her colleagues noted how she’s been able to do amazing things with technology in her teaching and her willingness to help many of them develop their own skills.
Greif has 21 years of teaching experience with Mount Vernon and 31 years overall. She started as a reading recovery teacher and Title I reading recovery teacher at Mount Vernon.
Keast had 31 years of music education experience at Mount Vernon, 36 years overall.
Kristin Anderson noted the number of songs about different subjects geared toward elementary singers that Keast has had to learn and teach in her 30 years at the elementary school level.
Nowak-Thompson had 13 years teaching at Mount Vernon and 27 years overall.
Among the lessons her peers learned from her was the ability to listen to children and what they were saying, as well as how young children apologize.
Havill had 28 years of experience at Washington Elementary as the building secretary.
Havill’s coworkers noted her ability to know every child in the building and where everything was kept in the office.
Alger has 36 years of teaching experience at Mount Vernon Schools, the only district she has ever taught.
Steines had 20 years at Mount Vernon Schools, the only district she has ever taught as well.
Smith served the Mount Vernon School district for 29 years as a paraeducator, well liked by the students.
Dye served the district for 24 years. One of her favorite memories was helping a student who was blind learn how to read braille, a skill she and the student both learned together.
Kragenbrink served the district for 27 years, and had 33 years overall.
Kragenbrink was the middle school and high school librarian for a number of years.
“Working in two buildings was actually one of the best jobs in the district,” Kragenbrink said. “I got to make friends with twice as many teachers and students.”
Kragenbrink thanked the district for the support of the libraries.
Her last message to all teachers and all those in attendance was “vote for education.”
Roundtable with retireesFollowing the ceremony, a number of the retirees stopped to talk about their favorite memories, what they’ll miss in teaching and future plans
“The students,” Dye said.
“I’m definitely going to miss my co-workers,” Alger said.
“I am definitely not going to miss computers,” Greif said.
That’s one of the biggest changes many of the teachers said that education has seen in the past 20 to 30 years, is the increase of technology.
Politics, Kragenbrink said, was the other big change.
“It used to be that education was the sacred cow, and they wouldn’t cut from those budgets,” Kragenbrink said. “That isn’t the case now, and we’ve had to fight for any funding.”
The other has been the climate in schools. The session was held just a day after the latest school shooting, and many of the retiring teachers said they passed off some of the items in their classrooms they purchased or brought for potential protection to other teachers remaining as part of their retirement.
For many of the group, the early retirement packages from the district spurred their retiring this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also another issue teachers weathered in the past few years.
Keast and Nowak-Thompson both noted the smaller class sizes and staggered classes were beneficial last year for their programs, while Greif said that utilizing Zoom for things like reading recovery were more difficult.
“It’s just evidence that everyone’s experience with COVID-19 was completely different,” Greif said.
Many of the teachers noted that Mount Vernon was the district they all chose when they were raising kids.
“It was so great to be able to run down the hall and catch a concert our kids were a part of during the school day, or be able to see our kids during the day,” Steines said.
When it comes to retirement, many teachers are also looking forward to embracing the f word of retirement – flexibility. It was a term Maurice shared.
“It will be the first time in almost 30 years I’ve not been on an academic calendar,” Alger said.
“That ability to take a vacation if we want to when it’s off season is something I’m looking forward to,” Greif said.