Mount Vernon had 17 teachers and staff retire at the end of this school year.
According to superintendent Matt Leeman, the retirements amounted to more than 400 years of experience, all from their time at Mount Vernon.
On Thursday, May 28, a retirement celebration was held at Mount Vernon High School for those teachers, as well as recognition for teachers who had 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of experience with the district.
Kris Abodeely
Official Title: Elementary kitchen Lead
Years of Service: 26
Retirement Plans: Spending time with our three grandchildren and welcoming the birth of two more this summer.
Parting Words to Share: “I will be sad to leave however I will have many, many memories to take with. Memories of all the good times, all the great kids and all the friends I have been fortunate enough to meet along the way. It’s truly been an honor to work with so many skilled and professional folks, both in the kitchen and all three schools.”
Jessica Fitzpatrick spoke about Abodeely’s impact at the celebration.
Fitzpatrick said how much Abodeely built relationships with students in the district, and see students every day each school year.
“She has had an opportunity to build so many positive connections with students,” Fitzpatrick said. “As a former student, she was always nice to me, and saw me as a person. And as an adult, she’s looked after me, too, setting aside food for me if she hasn’t seen me eat during the day.”
Aside from her work at the lunch rooms, she also helped run concession stands for a number of years, including for Science Olympiad and the alumni breakfast.
Rick Bryant
Official Title: Evening custodian (elementary)
Years of Service: I worked there for almost nine years
Retirement Plans: I don’t have any specific plans for retirement. I’m just going to relax and maybe do some fishing.
Parting Words to Share: “The teachers and staff at the elementary are great people and I enjoyed working there most of the time.”
Emily Stamp and Megan Casey spoke about Bryant’s impact as a custodian.
“If you know Rick, you know he would not like this attention,” Casey said. “He was one to stay out of the spotlight.”
Stamp said the important work he did was to provide students with a clean and safe school to welcome them every day.
“The other thing he understood was when us teachers needed just a little more space or time in our classroom at the end of the day,” Stamp said.
“Schools run on the effort of many different people,” Casey said.
The duo concluded with a song to the Cubs theme song with lyrics about Rick’s impact to the elementary building.
Diane Buffo
Official Title: CARA Grant Project Coordinator
Years of Service: Seven
Retirement Plans: Travel and spend time with family.
Amy Weber delivered remarks from Kassy Rice with Wellness Coalition of Rural Linn County. Rice and Buffo were at an event for the coalition that day.
Diane was with the coalition since 2019, working on empowering individuals to make healthy decisions.
“We’re going to miss Diane and her help in the office,” Rice wrote, “as well as the wisdom she has shared with us all.”
Julie Jilovec
Official Title: Middle school kitchen staff
Years of Service: Seven
Bob Haugse spoke about Jilovec’s time with the school district. Jilovec had started as a custodian at the elementary schools, and then transitioned to helping at the middle school kitchen.
“She served at that kitchen with a smile on her face and always willing to help wherever she was needed,” Haugse said.
Jilovec left the district in October of this year, and Haugse said she was missed. “She did a wonderful job when she was here.”
Lisa Kramer
Official Title: First grade teacher
Years of Service: 33 years at MVCSD
Retirement Plans: I’m looking forward to spending time with our grandchildren, family vacations, lunch dates with friends, and some home improvement projects.
Parting Words to Share: “I have truly enjoyed my time in Mount Vernon. I’ve stayed for so many years because of the special people I work with and the wonderful community. I have spent my years advocating for my students, building relationships, and creating an environment where learning can be fun. It is important to find joy in what you do and be passionate about what you believe in. Teaching has done this for me. I’m thankful for the good friends I’ve made and the many sweet little humans I have had the pleasure to teach. I leave MVCSD with a full heart and excited for the next chapter of my life!”
Megan Hach spoke on behalf of Kramer at retirement.
“She was always willing to help other teachers,” Hach said. “She has spent hours searching for new ideas on how to teach different skills. Sometimes those stacks could be more than a foot deep on her desk.”
Kramer, Hach said, was also a strong advocate for her students.
“She was open to new ideas,” Hach said.
And she had a sense of humor and pranks about her, with Hach recounting that bats that adorned her doors decorations were spotted wearing Santa hats as they were up through that holiday.
“She was patient with her students and a thousand different things,” Hach said.
Jennifer Lengwin
Official Title: Special Education
Associate
Years of Service: 20 years (17 years elementary, three years middle school)
Retirement Plans: I likely will only dip my toes into “retirement mode”. I plan to continue working in the MV district as a substitute for teachers and associates, and continue as the clubhouse manager for Kernoustie Golf Club. I look forward to traveling to visit my three kids who live in three different states and my mom who is memory care in Ohio. Hopefully there will also be trips to my home state of Washington for visits with friends, deep sea fishing, Mariners games, and beach walks.
Parting Words to Share: “It has been a deep honor to work in Special Education for the past 20 years, a career I started later in life thanks to Gary Nelson. My students, along with their families, have taught me so much. I am immensely grateful.
They face challenges with incredible grace, grit, and resilience.
Watching former Kindergarteners grow into young adults has been pure joy. There is no greater feeling than walking into a business and hearing former students call out my name. They are proud of their accomplishments and I am over the moon proud of them. They will forever hold a special place in my heart.”
Jessica Bartelt spoke about Lengwin. Bartelt said she had many years working alongside Lengwin.
“Some of my memories are dodging spider webs from one of our students, or waiting outside bathrooms as some students were having big feelings,” Bartelt said. “Jennifer went out of her way to learn all the dinosaur names for one of her students.”
The compassion and care she had for her special education kids, including Bartelt’s own son, meant the world to Bartelt.
“Mount Vernon was lucky to have had her in many classes,” Bartelt said.
Lengwin closed with remarks naming every one of her special education students as the biggest teachers she had in her life.
Mary Leopold
Official Title: Kindergarten Teacher
Years of Service: 23
Retirement Plans: Visit kids, volunteer, day and weekend adventures, spend time with family and friends.
Parting Words to Share: “Enjoy the Now.”
The Kindergarten team read a book about Mary Leopold and her plans to retire.
“What are you going to do in your retirement, Miss Mary, Miss Mary, Miss Mary?”
“Drink my coffee while it is still hot and not have anyone yell “teacher!”
Other moments included memories of snack times and serving those, and the big questions that five and six year olds have.
Leopold said she and her husband had been looking for a community to call home many years ago, and settled on Mount Vernon.
“I want to thank everyone who has wrapped around me,” Leopold said. “The help mowing my yard or shoveling sidewalks or providing snacks and treats. I had a dream job with a dream team. Thank you so much for touching my life in so many ways.”
Vance Light
Official Title: Wrestling coach
Years of Service: 33 years
Ryan Whitman delivered brief remarks, stating everything Light did was for the kids and that he helped build one of the strongest wrestling programs in the state.
Heidi Niehaus
Official Title: Special education
Paraprofessional
Years of Service: 20 years plus two years as a substitute before being hired full time
Retirement Plans: After retiring I will continue to substitute both as a teacher and para, work in my yard, make quilts, and hopefully travel.
Parting Words to Share: “I can’t think of anything too wise or witty for parting comments other than I have enjoyed my time working for the students and staff here.”
Jessica Bartelt spoke about Niehaus’s impact.
“Heidi went above and beyond for all of her students,” Bartelt said. “She was also there to help others with whatever they needed, even if that was tidying up.”
Bartelt said she helped students learn with differentiated instruction and enabled them to do so with confidence and empathy.
“I just hope she slows down a bit in retirement,” Bartelt said. “She has earned it.
Kathi Orr
Official Title: Middle School
Paraprofessional
Years of Service: 20 yrs.
Retirement Plans: Spending time with my family!
Jennifer Stanerson was tasked with speaking about Orr’s impact, but Orr challenged her to deliver remarks in 90 seconds or less.
Stanerson read a poem about how organized Orr was, and helped keep classrooms running every day.
LeAnn Pisarik
Official Title: High School
Paraprofessional
Years of Service: 26
Retirement Plans: Yet to be determined.
Parting Words to Share: “Enjoy the ride, it goes by faster than you think.”
Erin Wilkinson spoke about Pisarik, again tasked with keeping remarks short.
“I’m absolutely amazed with how she lined up so many work experiences for students,” Wilkinson said.
Pisarik said that was because of her work with the newspaper for many years.
Ed Timm
Official Title: ArchDuke of Social
Studies
Years of Service: 20+
Retirement Plans: I am not retiring. I am changing careers.
Parting Words to Share: “My kids, wife and students have never listened to me so why would anyone listen now?”
Maggie Willems spoke about Timm’s impact in the social studies department.
“Mr. Timm is a unique human being,” Willems said.
She said his classroom management was unique, as was his use of older technology to deliver his lessons.
“If he is an ice cream flavor, he’d be wasabi,” Willems said. “Zesty, sinus cleaning, but because it’s a flavor of ice cream, it has that bit of sweetness at the end.”
Willems said Timm is a long-time student favorite teacher, selected as speaker for many graduating classes.
“He is a strong advocate for struggling students,” Willems said. “He’s not afraid to have hard conversations.”
Mount Vernon was a better place because of him teaching here, Willems said.
“I’m grateful to have had such a confident model of a student-centered teacher to learn from,” Willems said.
Timm shared one last story, noting the school system itself reminds him of giraffes.
“Giraffes have a 15-month gestation period,” Timm said. “When it comes time for that giraffe mom to give birth, the mother stands in the middle, and other giraffes surround them. That’s known as a tower.”
Thirty-five to 40 minutes after being born, that baby giraffe will stand up for the first time, and the mother will knock that baby giraffe down.
That baby giraffe will stand again, and be knocked down again, but it will get back up quicker and quicker. The whole process can take hours to complete.
“It’s important, because if that baby does not get up quickly, it will be killed by predators,” Timm said. “That’s what this whole school is. We’re a tower of giraffes. We give students challenges that knock them down to get back up. Every single one of us is important to the success of the students here, from the outside to those on the inside in protecting those young students and preparing them for the world.”
Marty Williams
Official Title: Grounds & Maintenance
Years of Service: 15
Matt Leeman commented on Williams behalf.
“He truly kept the schools clean and running every day,” Leeman said. “He always knew how to keep things running, and was able to fix just about anything.”
Leeman said he took pride in the school and made it something other people could be proud of.