Monday, June 22, 2009 9:59 PM CDT
Some 'special' teachers retiring from Mattoon
By CHRIS ESSIG, Staff Intern
cessig@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — The local school district lost nearly 200 years worth of special education experience this spring when nine teachers in the department retired.
Four of the teachers retired with more than 30 years experience; another two had at least 20 years of experience.
Lenore Aebischer spent 31 years in the Mattoon school district, retiring from Arland D. Williams, Jr. Elementary School. She said she was initially attracted to special education after volunteering and working with kids with disabilities in the 1970s. She enjoyed the challenges of helping them learn and watching them accomplish something that many may take for granted, she explained.
Being single, Aebischer referred to her students as her kids. They taught her a lot, she said, even though she was the one teaching.
Looking back at her 30-plus years in the district, Aebischer said it was the “time of her life,” referring to a song played at their retirement breakfast.
“There was never a time that I didn’t like working for Mattoon,” she said.
Aebischer hopes to travel more now that she is retired. She also will work part-time at Classy Stuff Inc. in Mattoon, a store that provides educational resources, supplies and games for teachers and parents. She said she is open to the possibility of substitute teaching, but not in the immediate future.
Another elementary teacher to retire was Bonnie Kinney of Riddle Elementary School, who taught in the district for 31 years. Kinney said she has seen much growth in the department since she started.
“The program is more unified and the teachers have more contact with each other to work for the best interests of the children,” she said.
Besides scrapbooking and visiting her grandchild in St. Louis, Kinney hopes to be a substitute teacher in August.
“I can’t imagine not getting up and going to school,” she said. “I have done it my whole life.”
Kim Howrey, who taught for 22 years, also retired from Riddle.
A teacher with 32 years in the district is Belinda Hendrix, who spent her last years at Mattoon Middle School. When she started, it was called Mattoon Junior High School. In 1999, the school adopted the middle school concept, switched its name and added sixth grade in the building.
The school also developed the “teaming concept,” which blends students with learning disabilities into groups with other students, Hendrix said. The groups are assigned one learning disabilities teacher and a number of “core” teachers.
The goal, Hendrix said, was for someone to “walk into the classroom (and not) be able to tell them apart.” And she said it has worked.
“We see them really trying to work with their peers,” she said. “(The students) are achieving at a higher level than before.”
Like Aebischer, Hendrix’s last day teaching was June 2. She spent most of the day reminiscing about the changes she has seen in her three decades in the classroom. As of right now, Hendrix has no retirement plans besides watching her oldest grandson begin kindergarten, she said.
Other teachers retiring from the middle school include: Victoria Nevius with six years in the district and Sheila Wilson with 10 years.
Retiring from Mattoon High School was Debra Green, who taught in the district for 20 years. In the last six or seven years, Green taught cognitively disabled students with IQs between 45 and 65. Students with learning disabilities have IQs between 80 and 150.
Green referred to her students as “so sweet,” adding that she saw much growth in her students from the time they entered the school to the time they left.
Unlike when she started, teachers focus a lot on teaching functional skills like balancing a check book and understanding the monetary system, Green said. She attributes this to more options and opportunities being available to students after school.
Green watched five seniors get their diplomas at graduation, a large number for the special education department.
“I was very fortunate to go to a job that I loved every day,” she said.
Now that she is retired, Green plans to help her mother out more and visit her children, who live on the East Coast and in Florida. “I’m getting down to Florida for the winter,” she said.
In addition to the nine teachers retiring, Ida Cockrum, special education services director for the district, is also retiring after 21 years of service.
Cockrum has been the principal of the Neil Armstrong Program at Hawthorne School for the last 23 years as well. Her last day is on June 30.
“I will miss all of the students,” she said.
Cockrum’s responsibilities will be split into two positions next school year, creating a programs director in addition to a services director.
Before arriving at the Mattoon school district, Cockrum worked at the Eastern Illinois Area of Special Education and the Coles County Association for the Retarded.
She has worked in the area of special education for 36 years.
One of the biggest changes that Cockrum said she has seen over the years was implementation of the “individual education plan” for disabled students. Now, students are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, instead of the “one approach fits all” way that once was used, Cockrum said.
She also noticed that parents are “more involved in the process” of special education. These changes have been for the better, she said. Cockrum noted that when she started, about 70 percent of special education students graduated. Now, the number is closer to 95 percent, she estimates.
Also retiring from the school is Bonnie Tipsword, who taught for nine years in the district.
In all, three of the special education teachers now retiring will not be replaced, said Assistant Superintendent David Skocy. With shifts in staff and program changes, all of the cuts will be at the high school level.
This is part of the district’s plan of faculty attrition that it hopes will deal with budget shortfalls while still providing the same special education services to its students, Skocy said.
The district is opening a special education vocational program next year to combat some of the losses, officials said. An additional teacher will be hired for the program as well.
The district is also expanding on its pre-kindergarten special education program. It will now be housed in the larger Williams school.
This is because the district has about 120 pre-kindergarten students with learning disabilities, a number that has risen in the last few years, Skocy said.
The new special education programs director will help with these programs.
“You can’t replace the experience,” Skocy said, adding that school leaders have to “take that and move forward.”
Skocy also said that he will keep in contact with the retiring teachers and encourages them to become substitute teachers.
Contact Chris Essig at cessig@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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mattoon proud wrote on Jun 22, 2009 11:55 PM:
Thank you for your service to our school district and community. The positive impact that you have had on the lives of so many children is immeasurable.
Regards, Brian Hinton "