When the last bell rings this afternoon, a group of longtime
Morgan Hill Unified School District employees have put away their
chalk and attendance books, many for the last time, and left school
to enjoy retirement.
Morgan Hill – When the last bell rings this afternoon, a group of longtime Morgan Hill Unified School District employees have put away their chalk and attendance books, many for the last time, and left school to enjoy retirement.
Twenty-nine of the district’s employees were honored for their work at a ceremony at the Community and Cultural Center in May, as family and co-workers were invited to celebrate their years of dedication to the district.
Superintendent Alan Nishino told the large crowd gathered in the gaily decorated room that he believed they had made a valuable contribution to the district and hoped that they would now enjoy themselves.
“I’m really going to miss my students,” El Toro second-grade teacher Barbara Pearce said Thursday, as she considered what retirement would mean for her after 19 years in the district. “All of my students throughout the years have been very special.”
Pearce, who has been at El Toro since the school opened in a campus of portables more than a decade ago, said teaching second grade all these years has been a pleasure.
“I love their eagerness to learn, they just so want to learn, and they are so loving,” she said.
After she retires, Pearce said, she’s going to do some traveling, to China and to Boston. For the long term, however, she’s planning to move to Grass Valley and do some substitute teaching.
Her big project, however, is that she hopes to share her love of reading and her love of children by starting a guest reading program for children in a hospital library.
Together, the retiring MHUSD employees, which include teachers, administrators and classified workers, have more than 700 years of experience.
“I’ve been so lucky in my career,” Pearce said. “I have enjoyed my wonderful co-workers and my wonderful students.”
2007 MHUSD RETIREES
Karen Nelson Paradise Valley Elementary 36 years
Hope Nunez Los Paseos Elementary 35 years
Nancy Siverson Los Paseos Elementary 33 years
Jim Mendez Martin Murphy Middle 33 years
Rhoda Wolfskehl Los Paseos Elementary 32 years
Carmen Villegas Sobrato High 32 years
C. William Klipstine Live Oak High 32 years
Carol Ferri Paradise Valley Elementary 32 years
Jane Flanigan Sobrato High 30 years
Donna Cowan Live Oak High 30 years
Irma Mendez Sobrato High 28 years
Carol Nicoletti Jackson Elementary 27 years
Barbara Brock Nordstrom Elementary 27 years
Kathleen Kammann Paradise Valley Elementary 22 years
Mary Fisher Live Oak High 22 years
David Fulcher Nordstrom Elementary 20 years
Barbara Pearce El Toro Elementary 19 years
Adolph Valles Transportation 19 years
Bonnie Parodi School Nurse 12 years
Richard Knapp Sobrato High 10 years
Karen Tavares Jackson Elementary 4 years
