6-13-2013 2:11am

Saline Board of Ed Honors Retiring Staff

A week after Saline Area Schools bid adieu to the Class of 2013, the district thanked 16 departing staff members.

The Saline Area Schools Board of Education held a reception before Tuesday’s meeting at Liberty School and then honored the staff at the beginning of the meeting.

Board President David Holden noted it was the largest group of retiring staff members since 2010.

“Collectively, they’ve served the district for 401 years,” Holden said.

Superintendent Scot Graden said the retiring staff members “planted trees we’ll never see the shade from.”
“The group here today represents those who’ve really laid the groundwork for our district,” Graden said. “I feel confident (our district) is moving in the right direction. We are moving where we are moving because of the efforts of the people who have come before us.”

Graden read the poem “The Builder,” and said the retiring employees were “truly builders in our community.”

City of Saline Mayor Brian Marl took to the podium to say thanks to the retiring teachers and staff members.

“One of the reasons this city is such a great place to live in, a great place to raise kids in, and a great place to start a business in, is because of our outstanding school system,” Marl said, thanking the group.

But Marl had a special honor for retiring high school English and debate teacher Mary Converse, a Saline High School graduate who taught in Saline for 47 years.

“That’s quite a remarkable feat,” Marl said of her lengthy career.

Marl noted that Converse taught Superintendent Graden and Principal David Raft, a couple of administrators present at the meeting. Converse also taught literature and debate to Marl.

“I convinced her to be the advisor for the Young Democrats Club I started at Saline High School in 2001,” Marl said. “She is a remarkable educator and very gifted at what she does.”

Marl read a City of Saline certificate of recognition aloud and presented it to Converse before an embrace at the podium.

Here are the retiring Saline Area Schools staff members.

Ed Redies, HS Teacher, 3 years
Claudia Whitsitt, Heritage Teacher, 6 years
Doug Bacon, Director of Facilities, 8 years
Candy Wiechman, SWWC Paraeducator, 8 years
Laurie Lubomski, Bus Driver, 12 years
Diane Tew, Harvest Teacher, 23 years
Carole London, Pleasant Ridge Paraeducator, 23 years
Karen Szafarek, Pleasant Ridge Teacher, 30 years
Bettina Hoops, German Teacher, 30 years
Sharon Nicola, Speech & Language Pathologist, 30 years
Debbie Kolacki, Harvest Teacher, 34 years
Linda Montie, Bus Driver, 35 years
Daneen Mabley, HS Teacher, 37 years
Cindy Fisher, Harvest Teacher, 37 years
James Wholehan, Heritage Teacher, 38 years
Mary Converse, HS Teacher, 47 years

The Saline Post talked to a several departing district employees before Tuesday’s meeting.

Daneen Mabley

Mabley, a native of Grosse Pointe Farms, taught for 37 years, including the last 33 at Saline Area Schools. She taught English at Saline High School.

“I hope I made a mark. I think about all the students and wonderful professionals I worked with all these years that I never would have known had I not been here in Saline. It’s been a wonderful experience,” Mabley said.

Mabley often gave her e-mail address to students and asked them to stay in touch when they went off to college or joined the workforce.

“I just feel blessed to have been a teacher at Saline schools,” Mabley said.

Ed Redies

Redies owned a business before becoming an educator 12 years ago. After 9 years at the Jackson Area Career Center, Redies began teaching Computer Aided Design in his hometown. Though he loves working with students, Redies has had his fill of the state politics around teaching.

“The state legislature and our esteemed governor have made an attack on teachers over the past couple years and I’m in a position where I can leave the profession and go back to my business,” Redies said. “Every time I open the newspaper it seems like teachers are the problem.”
Redies said he enjoys the classroom.

“I love the kids. The kids energize you. They keep you young. But the paperwork, the politics, and the new ‘standards’ they roll out every three years that don’t have any effect on learning in the classroom – that’s the stuff I don’t like,” Redies said.

Redies isn’t quite done. He and four students are flying to Washington State to build an experimental aircraft.

Doug Bacon

A 1971 graduate of Saline High School, Doug Bacon became Director of Facilities for Saline Area Schools almost 10 years ago, after 27 years working as an engineer for General Motors.

He once studied government in a classroom that later served as his office at Liberty School.

Bacon remembers getting the opportunity to work for his hometown school district.

“I wanted to give something back to the community that raised me and this was the place to do that,” Bacon said.

It was a brand new world for Bacon.

“Coming from industry to a school district is a huge change. The focus is on money in industry. When you come to schools, the focus immediately changes to children, which changes everything. Everything you were driven to do is totally different,” Bacon said. “This has been a great experience.”

Bacon, who owned a couple of auto parts stores in the area, set some goals with the idea of retiring at the age of 60. He’s reached those goals and he’s ready for some “me time.”
He plans to complete work on a couple hot rods and spend some time painting with water colors.

Mary Converse

Mary Converse graduated from Saline High School in 1962. Four years later, turned down an offer for more money from Ann Arbor Pioneer and was hired by Superintendent Harold Hintz to teach at Saline High School in 1966.

“This is where I wanted to be,” Converse said.

For 47 years, that’s where Converse remained, teaching English, public speaking and debate.

She’s retiring as her last nephew, Brandon Gordon, graduates from the district.

Only five years ago, Converse was telling people she would never retire, and that they’d have to pull her out of the school with her boots on.

“But when I saw all of the new initiatives, while they’re good and proper and the right thing to do, I just knew I didn’t have the extra energy that I’ve always had to be prepared as I like to be,” Converse said. “And I never wanted anyone to say, ‘That old girl should have left a year ago. She hung on a one year too long.’”

Instead, Converse said, she’s leaving on a high note.

“So many wonderful and heartfelt things have been said to me,” Converse said.

Thought the economic advantages of teaching aren’t what they were just a couple years ago, Converse recommends the profession to anyone who has a passion for it.

“People who choose teaching are not doing this for money. They are doing this because they have deep feelings about making an impression on a kid’s life. Once that gets into your mind, and it often happens quite young, when girls lineup dolls in chairs and begin to teach them things, it’s just something that’s natural,” Converse said. “You have to choose to follow what you love and not worry about the pay, because you’ll be paid back in other ways that a lot of people in other jobs won’t ever know.”

Converse advises prospective teachers to carefully choose where they may teach.

“Not every school or community is the right fit,” she said.

But when a teacher finds the right fit, something special happens.

“To be in the energy of teenagers is tremendous. They feed off you and you feed off them,” Converse said. “Sometimes it’s difficult to have all the kids calling your name 500 times a day. But when I got tired, I think, ‘they’re calling my name because they need help. And I can give it to them.’”