Monroe school teacher makes plans for after retirement.
By: Audrey Levine
MONROE She says she is a fan of change and likes to take advantage of new opportunities.
So she doesn’t mind that during her career as a teacher in Monroe, she has gone from teaching basic skills to being a classroom teacher and back to basic skills.
But the biggest change will come when Leslie Logel, basic skills teacher at the Barclay Brook School, retires after 31 years working in the township.
"I will miss the excitement of a new school year beginning," she said. "(But) now I can sleep in on Mondays."
Ms. Logel began her career in 1974 after graduating from Monmouth University with a degree in elementary education. The first opening she found was at Woodland Elementary School as a basic skills teacher.
"Teaching jobs were hard to come by," she said. "I took whatever was available at the time. (But) you have to enjoy where you are and I have made lifelong friends here (because) of the whole community, the school, parents, administration and my colleagues."
She spent three years there before moving to Barclay Brook to teach second, fourth and fifth grades and, eventually, to the newly opened Brookside School, where she taught fourth and fifth grades.
When a position opened seven years ago for a new basic skills teacher at Barclay Brook, now a now K-2 school, Ms. Logel jumped at the chance.
"I had never taught kindergarten and first grade and I wanted to try," she said.
Despite having taken a few years off for maternity leave, Ms. Logel said the Board of Education has always worked with her during her 26 years of teaching.
"Monroe has been very good to me, almost like an extended family," she said. "They always encouraged me and I was able to change schools and grades."
Despite switching between many different grades, Ms. Logel said she always wanted to work with elementary school students.
"Younger students really want to learn and are open to new things," she said. "I baby-sat as a teen, so it seemed like a natural progression."
Ms. Logel said that over the years, she has heard from past students through visits or by reading about what they have been doing.
"It is rewarding to see where the students end up," she said. "(It is wonderful) when they come back and say, ‘remember when we did this project?’"
After retirement, Ms. Logel said she plans to do some traveling and visit relatives, including one sibling in California and another in Kansas.
Other than that she said she has no definite plans, although she has thought about fixing up her house, doing volunteer work and visiting with friends while spending time with her family because, as she says, she "was never a stay-at-home mom."
Although her children are of college age and beyond, she said she will now have more time to visit with them.
"I don’t know what I will do," she said. "It will be difficult without my (normal) routines."
Ms. Logel said she is thankful for the wonderful students, supportive parents and a great administration and colleagues. However, she said she is still open to new possibilities.
"Sometimes I think I might like to teach college," she said. "I’ve never taught that age."