Friday, May 27, 2016

Just like that - she's retired!

 After 34 years of teaching, 22 of them right next door to me, my bestie retired. I'm happy for her; I really am, but I'm sort of dreading starting next year without her. I'm not going to focus on that right now, though. Instead, I'm going to just focus on all the great moments we shared here at school for the past two decades. Oh, and for anyone wondering, I have 11 more years before I can retire at full benefit. Not that I'm counting or anything...
 These pics are from the last day of school with students - Friday, May 20.
 And here are some pics from closing day - Monday, May 23. These first few are from the district-wide staff assembly that we have at the end of each year in our arena. Vonda and the other retirees were recognized by the superintendent in front of our entire system - roughly 600 employees across our district.


 Before the reception and faculty meeting for our school, Vonda's husband took a few belongings out to her car for her while she had the custodians take down her name plate that hung from the ceiling outside her door. Of course I had to snap a pic of that momentous occasion.
 Here she is being recognized by our principal, Will King.
 She told the story of her grandfather's school bell that she has kept and used all these years. (I'm really NOT going to miss her ringing that damn bell! It was kind of annoying even if the story about it is pretty sweet.)

 She didn't want to give a speech, but it was expected. As I predicted, she did a fabulous job with it.
This is a shot of everyone retiring at our high school this year. Combined, they had served students for 297 years. How crazy is that?!
Vonda and her husband, Mike, are posing here at the reception.
 And this is my last pic with my best friend during her teaching career. Of course, I expect we'll have lots of other future photos together - doing fun things instead of being at work! :)  Positive thinking in action, eh?

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