Orchard Hill principal retiring
By: Helen Pettigrew
MONTGOMERY After 30 years of service at the same school, Betty Ward is ready to do some moving around.
Ms. Ward, principal of Orchard Hill Elementary School, will retire this spring and has plans to travel the world.
Ms. Ward began her career in Montgomery in 1971 as a science teacher at the Orchard Road School. She was the principal of that school from 1988 until 1998 when it was linked with the Burnt Hill Road School to become Orchard Hill. She then worked as the vice principal of Orchard Hill until 1999, when former principal Basil Smith retired, and has been serving as principal since last spring.
At 68, Ms. Ward said she feels ready to retire. She plans to spend time with her husband, traveling and working in the Wild Bird Habitat store in Princeton, which the couple recently purchased.
"I’m looking forward to working at least one, maybe two years there," Ms. Ward said.
As for traveling, Ms. Ward has plenty of ideas.
"My first choice is to go to New Zealand and Australia for bird watching," she said. "I’d also like to go to the Galapagos Islands and maybe Africa and Alaska. Just anywhere I can go."
Ms. Ward said that of everything at Orchard Hill, she will miss her students and their parents most.
"I’ve met a lot of wonderful parents but the students are the highlight of my life," she said. "I’m going to miss them."
Ms. Ward said she decided to become an elementary school teacher after she had her own children and went back to work, teaching nursery school.
"I decided I liked elementary school students, so I went back to school," Ms. Ward said.
She then attended the College of New Jersey, where she earned her elementary certification and later received a supervisor and principal certification from Rider College. Ms. Ward had previously received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1956 and her master’s degree at Saint Lawrence University in 1961.
She taught eight years in Genoa, N.Y., Goveneur, N.Y. and an inner city school in Baltimore, before coming to Montgomery, where she lived for 27 years.
Now a resident of Hillsborough, Ms. Ward said her retirement, although welcome, will be a big change.
"It’s been stimulating and challenging and very rewarding, and I am sincerely going to miss the students and the people I worked with," she said of her job as principal. "It’s going to be a big adjustment for me not coming to school."
Linda Romano, president of the Township Board of Education, said Ms. Ward was a "great asset" to the district and will be missed.
"My kids went to school when Betty was principal," she said. "She was always very good to kids and a wonderful principal. She was sort of a fixture in the district."
Ms. Romano said the school board is waiting for Stuart Schnur to begin working as superintendent March 1 before it decides how to go about selecting a new principal.
Dr. Schnur will do most of the interviewing for that position, she said.