The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
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Final course
Retiring teachers ready for new chapter in their lives
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 19, 2008
Funny, they don't look that old; but when this school year ends, four teachers will be taking more than a century of Chelsea classroom experience out the door with them.
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Janet Alford, D'Ann Gietzen, Ruth Stielstra and Jim Ticknor all said they will miss Chelsea schools, and particularly the enthusiasm and creativity of their students.
And when you add in the retirements of Assistant Superintendent Iva Corbett, high school Principal Ron Mead and Beach Middle School media center paraprofessional Luella "Lu" Kramer, the combined educational experience leaving the district this year is more like 157 years.
But believe it or not, this is far from extraordinary, according to Superintendent Dave Killips.
"This was actually a smaller number of retirees than we usually have," Killips said.
"A couple of years ago we had 12 retirements and we counted up over 300 years of experience."
Still, it is notable when classroom veterans of such longevity decide to take that permanent summer vacation.
Jim Ticknor, 35 years
South Meadows Elementary, sixth-grade global studies, math and reading; football and baseball coach
Jim Ticknor has seen a lot of changes in his 35 years with the district.
Some things have remained fairly constant, he noted, but on the other hand, he's also seen some vast and far-reaching changes.
"The kids have not really changed, but the accountability has,' he said. "They're not held as accountable as they were," Ticknor said.
"I think the biggest change in education is in the curriculum; and school finances is also one of the biggest changes," he added.
"It used to be that the local district made all the decisions. I also think statewide testing has changed things dramatically, both good and bad."
Throughout his career Ticknor stayed with the mid-elementary grades.
"One of the things I love so much about fifth- and sixth-graders is, they are on the verge of being their own thinkers," he said. "It's such a neat thing to see and be a part of."
His first few years were spent teaching fourth grade, then a couple of years in a fourth-fifth split class, followed by a long stretch of 25 years in fifth grade, and the past two in sixth grade.
"I spent 24 years here, then six at Pierce Lake, and I've been back here for five," Ticknor said.
In addition to all the time spent developing minds in the classroom, Ticknor has spent as much or more time developing bodies out on the athletic field.
"I've been a coach all but one year; I took a year off to stay with my daughter," he said.
His coaching resume includes 16 years as freshman and JV football and assistant varsity football coach; and freshman and JV baseball — 22 years of it.
When not on the sidelines calling plays, he's been on the field ruling on them.
"I've refereed football, baseball and basketball," Ticknor said. "I still do football but had to give up the others when my knees gave out, and I want to do it at least one more year."
As if that weren't enough, Ticknor shows his dedication to youth by teaching driver's education classes in Chelsea for All-Star Driver's Education of Ann Arbor.
"It's a way to keep my hand in the community, to continue teaching and working with the kids," Ticknor said.
"My sixth-graders have made me promise to stay with it until they are old enough for it."
D'Ann Gietzen, 26 years
North Creek, second grade
"I feel like I'm going out with an auspicious group," said D'Ann Gietzen, referring to the other longtime teachers and administrators who are retiring this year.
"I've been here 24 years full time, but for my first two years I was hired as the first preschool teacher for the Community Ed department," Gietzen recalled.
"I taught first grade for the first five years, then I moved up to second grade in 1989."
Like Ticknor, Gietzen said the students have changed little over the years.
"The children never change — they seem to honest, happy and very positive," she said.
"I think education has changed; technology has had a big impact on the kids, even on the younger ones."
Of all the subjects she teaches to her young charges, Gietzen said reading is her favorite.
"It's nice to see when kids master the skill of reading, and how it opens up a whole new world to them," she said.
Her teaching experience has been made even more pleasant by caring and compassionate parents and administrators
"I've enjoyed working with the parents in Chelsea because they are so supportive and positive," she said. "The administrators have always been supportive and do what's best for kids," she said.
Gietzen has had time to put retirement into perspective.
"I'm leaving, but I'm opening up an opportunity for somebody else; that's how I look at it," she said.
"I plan to do a lot of things that I've put on hold for many years," she added.
Nevertheless, it will be an emotional moment when she leaves the classroom for the last time.
"It's been a really satisfying career," Gietzen said.
"It's kind of bittersweet when you leave something that you enjoy and have been doing for so long."
Janet Alford, 24 years
South Meadows, fifth- and sixth-grade Art
Gietzen and Janet Alford have not only been co-workers for nearly a quarter-century, but they were friends even before that.
"D'Ann and I were hired the same week for the same building; we were the first hires they'd made in a long time," said Alford.
"We were already good friends, and we always said — as a joke — that we came in together and we'll go out together.
"Neither one of us ever considered retiring in the same year, so we just kept teaching," she added.
Alford has always been an art teacher, whether at South Meadows or North Creek Elementary.
She began her teaching career in 1968 in her native Atlanta, Ga.
"I followed my husband Jim to Ozark, Ala., where he was stationed in the military, and took some time off for family," she said, her voice still hinting at her Dixie upbringing.
"My husband was offered a job at the University of Michigan, so we migrated up here."
She said she has no regrets about moving from the Deep South.
"Living in Chelsea has been the absolute best thing for my family; the South is where the other parts of my family live, but Chelsea is our home," she said.
"It's been an excellent place to have raised our children."
The Alfords have two sons: Jim III and J.D., who both live in the Chelsea area with their families.
Janet's husband is now retired from the university and is an instructor pilot for the Ann Arbor Flyer's Club.
Alford said teaching has been her lifelong passion, and she'll continue volunteering with the Chelsea Center for the Arts.
"After you've been a teacher and a nurturer for so many years, what else is there to do?" she said.
"I've always wanted to teach children, to analyze what they're seeing and how it affects them."
She said she also wanted to give children a sense that their creativity comes out in different ways at different times.
"My quest is to work with them and see that they 'get it,' that they realize they are creative and they can work on a project that shows their creativity," she noted.
That said, she also realizes that not everyone can be another Rembrandt — and that's OK too.
"We also need curators," she said. "They are the ones who recognize and appreciate that art is involved in any vocation, whether displaying merchandise or designing an automobile or clothing."
Art is different from other elementary subjects in that it is entirely subjective; there are no "right" or "wrong" answers, but there are ways of determining how well a student develops their innate talent.
"My form of grading them is to show them how much they are progressing," Alford said.
"By not giving them letter grades we are allowing them to develop that creativity, no matter what age it comes out. I definitely don't want to discourage their attempt."
Alford said what sets Chelsea apart from other school districts is its continuing encouragement of the arts in an era of uncertain funding.
"They've always supported the arts, they haven't eliminated art classes from the curriculum," Alford said.
Over the past 24 years she has seen some of her former students go on to some measure of professional success in art, and now it's her turn.
"Now that I'm retiring, I can concentrate on my own artwork and see where that takes me."
Ruth Stielstra, 23 years
Pierce Lake, fourth-grade English Language Arts
Ruth Stielstra said she enjoyed playing school when she was a girl, and "I've been playing school for 33 years."
However, when it came time to go to college and choose a career, education wasn't exactly at the top of her list.
"When I graduated (from high school) I wanted to go to fashion school in New York," said the Midland native.
"But my father suggested that I 'get a degree in something stable,' so I got a degree in teaching from Central Michigan University, which was only 20 miles away."
As a result, Stielstra spent more than three decades teaching in many places around the country and overseas.
"My first year teaching was in Petoskey, then I went to Bad Kreuznach, Germany; then I came back to Midland for three years where I taught sixth-grade math and gifted and talented classes," Stielstra said.
After that she taught in Alma for a year, where her daughter Megan was born.
"I stayed home with her for the next six years, and when I decided to return to teaching, the closest classroom I could find was in the Denver area," Stielstra said.
After a time, however, she returned to Michigan to teach seventh- and eighth-grade English in Perry.
"I missed the Great Lakes and trees," she said.
Stielstra made her way to Chelsea in 1985, where she has remained.
"I spent my first nine years in the 'Enrichment Triad' program for gifted and talented students," she recalled.
The technique she developed is based in part on her experience with those gifted students who needed constant intellectual challenges.
"I taught those gifted and talented strategies, and all these decades later they are where they're supposed to be — in every classroom," Stielstra said.
Her students are taught in "interest centers," in which they create projects on a given subject that combine reading, writing and research, and present the results to the entire class.
"If we integrate it, we can fit it all in," Stielstra said.
Stielstra has very clear objectives for her retirement, foremost among them being a proud grandmother.
"I have a 4-month-old grandson," she said. "My daughter Megan, who attended school in Chelsea, is now a literature professor at the University of Chicago."
She is going to concentrate on three types of community service in her retirement, ranging from personal to political.
"For myself, I have a weaving studio at home and I'm going to see what I can do with that.
"For the community, I am going to become a docent at the new University of Michigan art museum.
"And for my country, I am going to do whatever I can to elect a Democrat to the White House this November."
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