BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Georgia Baumann pays a visit to a first-grade class Monday morning at Sayreville’s Woodrow Wilson School, where she is principal. For Georgia Baumann, it’s all about the children.Every weekday morning, the principal of Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Sayreville makes her way to the K-3 building on Dane Street and is met with children’s shouts welcoming her to the day.
“The kids say, ‘One, two, three, good morning, Mrs. Baumann!’ ” she said. “How could you not start your day positively?”
Apparently the positive energy the 64-year-old educator receives every morning has been enough to keep the love for her career strong; she has been in the field of education for 42 years, 41 of them in Sayreville.
Originally from Jersey City, Baumann said her parents, while not college-educated themselves, pushed hard for their children to learn as much as possible.
As early as eighth grade, Baumann said, she knew she wanted to be an educator.
During a discussion with the class on what the children would like to do when they grow up, Baumann recalls saying, “I know that I like to learn and would like to help others.
“And I think from that moment on that was what I wanted to do,” she added.
Baumann’s journey in education began in 1962 in Pompton Lakes, earning just $3,700 per year, before a long commute and an aunt who was moving to the Sayreville area, prompted her to look into teaching locally.
She began where she is today, at Wilson School, which then had just converted from the high school to seventh and eighth grade.
It was here that she met Sayreville native Alfred Baumann, then a physical education teacher at the school, whom she would eventually wed. They have been married 37 years.
Though now retired, Baumann said her husband has never expressed an issue with his wife remaining in education long after she could have retired.
“He’s probably my biggest cheerleader,” she said. “He’s been that way my entire career.”
Once Sayreville Middle School, then the junior high, was built, Baumann transferred there. Ultimately, after receiving her master’s degree in English at Seton Hall University in the early 1970s, she found herself at Sayreville War Memorial High School, where she taught all grade levels, including 12th-grade world literature honors.
“What a quantum leap to go from teaching ninth grade to 10th through 12th,” she said. “It was a very exciting thing.”
In 1978, after returning to Seton Hall for her administrators certificate, she took on the role of supervisor of language arts for the district, a position she held for 20 years.
Most recently, Baumann was named director of supervision and curriculum for the district, a part-time position created as part of the district’s administration reorganization efforts. She will oversee supervisors and their curriculum, as well as make sure the curriculum is in alignment and is being delivered in the classroom.
Baumann said with her new job, which is on top of two other positions — supervisor of the gifted and talented program and chairperson of the staff development program — she has accomplished a goal in her career she has long aspired to reach.
But it is her role as principal of Wilson School, which she has held since 1998, that has been one of the most rewarding aspects of her extended tenure in the district.
She said a dedicated and professional staff at Wilson also has helped in making the last seven years there as rewarding as they have been.
“[The staff] makes you, as a leader, so excited,” she said. “It’s a lovely environment, really.”
Looking back over her career, Baumann said she has truly come full circle. Although she could retire, she said she has no such plans, especially since taking on her newest position.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I believe I would not be here if I did not feel I could come every day and do something that is important for the children, who are the focus of my day, and the outstanding staff we have.”
Prior to taking on the role as principal, Baumann said she was unaware of how rewarding working in an elementary school could be.
“It is one of the finest things I have done in my career,” she said. “You are being pro-active with children, as opposed to being reactive. And they want to be successful, and they like school, and they want to come. And that’s very exciting. There is a positive energy that is so important in this school.”