Four veteran teachers are taking down their bulletin boards and packing away 147 years of experience as they prepare to retire from a Streamwood elementary school whose success in large part has been credited to their leadership and enthusiasm.
On Wednesday, Vivian Hileman, Marta Gross, Susan Hughes and Nancy Ness taught their last full day at Woodland Heights Elementary School in nearly bare classrooms heavy with the scent of chalk dust and crayons.
The official retirement Thursday of the four will leave a void in this small community of 436 pupils and 19 teachers, one that parents and staff are wondering how to fill.
“It’s a great loss of stability for the school,” said parent Priscilla Lilianstrom. “The grandmas are leaving. They really took care of these kids.”
The four teachers spent Wednesday opening presents from pupils, directing them to clean out their desks and trying to squeeze a last few minutes of learning in between the giggles, fidgeting and chatter that are standard on the last full day of school.
As the bell rang, 5th-grader Crystal Contreras hugged Hileman near a blackboard already wiped clean and a globe wrapped in plastic.
“I’m going to miss you,” said Crystal.
The four started teaching at the K-6 school in the 1960s. At that time, they were required to wear skirts, and teaching, nursing or secretarial work were their main career options, Ness said.
Over the years, they have weathered strikes and busing protests. They’ve watched the number of children with two working parents zoom. And they have taught the children of former pupils.
The four became friends, traveling and trading notes on pupils. Ness and Hughes were roommates for a while, and Hileman and Gross carpooled.
When it came time to retire and all four realized they had less energy than they used to, they decided to turn in their papers at the same time.
The decision was made a little easier, for both the teachers and the school, by the four giving two years’ notice to ease the transition, in exchange for a financial bonus from Elgin-based School District 46.
After careers of 34 to 42 years, all four said they still love watching children learn and grow.
“I feel I am making a difference for someone,” said Hileman, who could have retired four years ago but didn’t feel quite ready. “I’m a better teacher every year. This is my best year yet.”
The four teachers, along with an unusually experienced staff, have played a role in the school’s success in recent years on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, Principal Tim Pociask said.
According to the 2001 state school report card, Woodland Heights outpaced the district and state in overall scores–even though nearly 28 percent of its pupils spoke limited English, 35 percent were from low-income backgrounds and the so-called mobility rate, of pupils moving into and out of the school during the academic year, was nearly twice the state average. The school has exceeded district and state scores for the last three years.
Colleagues call Hughes the “Energizer bunny” for her endless energy. She started a closed-circuit television program, taught technology to the staff and helped start a computer-driven reading program.
Ness served on a science committee, ordered science supplies and pushed for a school writing program.
Hileman was a technology mentor and served on the math committee. And Gross was an excellent classroom teacher, Pociask said.
“We depend on them so much to take that leadership role,” said teacher Pam Karavas, who worked with Hughes to develop a program that brings hearing-impaired and bilingual kids into the 1st-grade classroom.
“I think that we’re all a little scared who will do it when they leave. We’ll all just have to rise to the occasion, and we will.”
The school has hired three teachers, and others already are assuming leadership roles, said Pociask.
He is confident the school’s academic success will continue. He is more concerned about preserving the family feeling that flourished in the school for two generations.
“As good as they are as teachers, they’re even better people,” Pociask said. “They really are part of the culture here. We’re a small elementary that is very close-knit, like family. It’s losing a part of the culture.”
