HILLSBOROUGH: Employees take 549 total years into retirement

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   A dozen teachers with 300 years of experience will retire from the township school system this month.
   Another 113 years of academic assistance — the cumulative total of another six teaching aides — also will step back.
   They, along with five other district employees and two school board members, were recognized publicly and given a gift at the Board of Education’s June 11 meeting.
   The years of service are a little higher than usual, said Superintendent Scott Rocco after the meeting.
   ”The years of service really speak volumes to the fact that the staff members at Hillsborough are dedicated professional educators,” he said.
   In addition to the teachers are Thomas Enos, a school psychologist for 32 years, and three bus-driving women with a total of 104 years of service between them.
   Building principals and supervisors described each retiree’s service, and, if the employee attended, gave them a hug.
   The summaries spoke to the retirees’ expectations of days ahead in which they could be at the beach in September, go skiing in the winter, read books not on the curriculum they taught and mostly spend time with family and grandchildren.
   Tops on the list by seniority was Auten Road Intermediate School sixth-grade teacher Diane Grabas, who has spent all of her 44 years in education as a Hillsborough teacher. She’s a past ARIS Teacher of the Year and counts among her memories getting a mountaineering team to display a school logo near the peak of Mount Everest, said ARIS Vice Principal Steven Kerrigan.
   She has two scrapbooks full of special notes, Mr. Kerrigan said, and she looks fondly to sitting on her porch on the first day of school with a cup of coffee, totally “stress free.”
   Another longtime district teacher who is leaving is Fred “Skip” Emanuelli, who has 42 years in district schools with the last 10 at ARIS. Mr. Kerrigan said Mr. Emanuelli loves to continue teaching Boy Scouts and the Community Emergency Response Team program.
   Instructional assistant Nancy Budd, retiring after 11 years, started her career as a registered nurse for 20 years before coming to the schools to teach math. She was ARIS Teacher of the Year in 2009, Mr. Kerrigan said.
   Amsterdam School Principal Mary Ann Mullady said retiring academic support instructor Ann Harris would be working on her dissertation for a further degree. The former teacher was commended for working on outside-the-classroom science programs and trips and would be welcome back anytime, but perhaps not with her “crawly things” she’d use in her lessons.
   Cynthia Gabory, who is retiring from ARIS after 17 years, came to education after working in business. As it turned out, Ms. Gabory and her daughter began their teaching careers together, Mr. Kerrigan said.
   Kathleen Perl, another who spent her entire career in Hillsborough and the 2009 Teacher of the Year at ARIS, in her last years was a sixth-grade REACH (gifted and talented program) teacher.
   Mr. Rocco praised Dr. Enos as a man instrumental in developing the district’s well-recognized program for autistic youngsters.
   Deborah Filipone spent 18 years as a library and instructional assistant in the district. She spent her last year at Hillsborough Elementary, but had worked in all buildings in the district, Principal Michael Volpe said.
   High School Principal Karen Bingert praised the 26 years in education — the last 12 in Hillsborough — by Bernadette Chiselko.
   Anna Jozefacka, a custodian, who retired in Poland, has returned to her family in Poland.
   JoAnn Bebbington-Layton, an English teacher retiring after 25 years, looked forward “to reading a book other than ‘Huckleberry Finn’ or ‘Red Badge of Courage,’ “ Ms. Bingert said.
   Terry Messinger thanked the board for letting her finish her career as an instructional assistant for one year after 24 years as a library assistant. One thing she planned to do, Ms. Bingert said, was to plan motorcycle trips with her husband.
   Also saluted was industrial technology teacher Jacqueline Puzio, who retired late last year after 35 years of work in the information and communication technology area.
   Patricia Rozycki, a special education aide for 25 years in the district, looked forward to spending time with her six grandsons and may come back as a sub, Ms. Bingert said.
   Donna Shelcusky, a math teacher, will be missed for her work creating information slides for the district cable TV Channel 14, Ms. Bingert said.
   World history teacher Cheryl Watkins retired after spending most of her Hillsborough career in the middle school, Ms. Bingert said.
   Middle School Principal Joseph Trybulski cited Maria Cannon, with 11 years in the district, for her one-on-one work in academic support for children with physical and cognitive disabilities and Mindy Cohen for 20 years in math education.
   Sunnymeade School Principal Tammy Jenkins said third-grade teacher Claudia Slaby will retire after 32 years — in addition to doing her student teaching in the district.
   Woodfern School Principal Jay Majka thanked academic support instructor Amy Curton, who was retiring after 12 years to deal with health problems and spend time with family. She recently was married, he said.
   Transportation Supervisor Debbie Espinosa saluted three bus drivers — Barbara Majewski, Linda Hackney and Ann Ovath — for their 40, 27 and 28 years of service respectively. In transporting children over many of the township’s toughest routes for many hours a day, they were more than drivers; they were inspectors, caregivers, disciplinarians and parents — and were so loved parents often fought to have them with their children, Ms. Espinosa said.
   Board President Tom Kinst presented his predecessor, Steve Paget, with a plaque and thanked him for his “passionate advocacy” for students and his analytic mind and logical reasoning skills that led the board through complex issues.
   Mr. Kinst also thanked Marc Rosenberg, who, like Dr. Paget, served six years on the board, for being a consistent advocate for a “rich curriculum,” technology, teacher training, the media center and student achievement.