The end of a school year means the end of a career for hundreds of Arkansas educators and other school workers who have decided to retire.
Making that leap, however, is not always easy.
"I've gone back and forth all year long," said Cornelia Stark, a third-grade teacher at Walker Elementary School in Springdale, on her choice to retire at the end of this year after 39 years in education.
Stark is the last person still at the school who was there when it opened in 1987. She finally opted to retire mainly to spend more time with her family.
"We have a saying here: 'Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat,'" Stark said, referring to the school's mascot. "That's me, too. I'll always be a Wildcat."
Ruth Stringfield said she, too, waffled a bit before deciding 45 years -- all as a teacher in the Bentonville School District -- was enough.
"I just felt like I want to explore some other things," she said.
Stark and Stringfield are two of the Northwest Arkansas region's most experienced people from the education field retiring this summer. Patsy Mooney, a high school teacher in Rogers, and Tommy Davenport, transportation director for Fayetteville Public Schools, are two others.
Together they've worked 170 years in education. Here's a little bit about each of them, their careers and what's next in their lives.
RUTH STRINGFIELD
The Bentonville School District suddenly had an opening at the start of the 1973-74 school year when a first-grade teacher at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School moved out of state. Stringfield, who was living in Oklahoma, got the word.
Stringfield, 22 years old at the time, called and arranged a Sunday afternoon interview with then-superintendent Marvin Higginbottom.
"I came with a suitcase full for a week because I had a feeling it would work out," Stringfield said. "The principal I had student-taught under told me, 'I gave you a good recommendation. Go live up to it.'"
Indeed, it worked out. She taught first grade at Jefferson Elementary for 16 years, then shifted into the gifted and talented program, where she's taught the past 29 years.
She is a gifted and talented teacher in Bentonville.
Her classroom is in the TREC Center for Gifted Education, where academically talented second- through fifth-graders go once per week. She also travels to other schools to provide enrichment activities for younger students. She's proud of her work coaching Odyssey of the Mind teams, which she took to national competitions six times.
The Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education organization honored Stringfield with its 2018 award of excellence. Tamara Gibson, the district's director of elementary education, praised Stringfield during a School Board meeting last month.
"The tremendous impact she has had on district students, staff and parents cannot be overstated," Gibson said.
"We will miss her terribly, but without a doubt her legacy will remain."
Stringfield said she enjoys seeing the "light bulbs come on in kids' eyes" when they figure out a new concept. She also loves to see students persevere when they are faced with challenges.
Stringfield, 66, plans to keep busy in retirement. She's interested in learning how to paint with watercolors. She'll do some sewing and "some craft things" she's put off for a while. She's a longtime Sunday school teacher, something she plans to continue doing. She also looks forward to traveling. Hawaii is highest on her list of places to see.
"My goal is, I'd like to see all of the United States. I've been to 36 of them," she said.
Her advice for a young teacher? Stay focused on meeting childrens' needs and try to build relationships with them.
"If a child knows that you care, they're more willing to work with you. To me, that's the most important thing," she said.
TOMMY DAVENPORT
Davenport, a lifelong Fayetteville resident, started driving school buses for the school district in 1976, right after he graduated from Fayetteville High School. He drove buses throughout the next several years while attending the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He'd do a morning route, park his bus at the university, go to his classes, then do an afternoon route, he said.
His career with the district continued with various jobs in the custodial, housekeeping and maintenance departments. The School Board chose him to be director of transportation in December 1997. He's logged 42 years with the district.
School buses have come a long way since he drove them, he said. Now they have heat and air conditioning, two-way radios and security cameras.
Back in his driving days, he said, "If we had a breakdown in the country, we had to go find the nearest landline. Now everybody carries a cellphone. We have two-way radios. Communication is so much better than it was."
Also in the old days, if a bus broke down, "Some parents would come by with a truck, load up everybody and take them home. Everyone knew everyone. You wouldn't think of doing something like that today."
Bus drivers play an important role, he said. They're often the first school employee kids see each morning and the last one they see at the end of the day.
"If you don't have a passion for it, you don't last long," he said. "You've got to work with the kids and encourage them to follow the rules, and you've got to get to know them a little bit. It takes some hard work. Driving a bus is the easy part. Managing the students is the hard part."
Davenport, 60, said he has no specific reason he's retiring now, except he thought it was time for a change. Despite the long hours -- he typically works from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. -- he said he still enjoys the job. He has 80 acres where he keeps a few dozen cattle. He and his wife, Mary, also have four young grandchildren with whom he wants to spend more time.
He also hasn't ruled out going back to driving a school bus.
"I'm going to keep my license," he said.
CORNELIA STARK
When people ask Stark how long she's been at Walker Elementary School, her standard response is, "forever."
Stark, who teaches third grade, moved to Northwest Arkansas from central Arkansas with her husband, Bert Stark, in 1982 so Bert could work on his doctorate in education. Their plan was to stay just a couple of years. It's been 36 years and counting.
Cornelia Stark, 58, took a job teaching at Tyson Elementary School. When Walker Elementary was about to open in 1987, she volunteered to transfer. One good reason: "Back then, none of the other schools had air conditioning," Stark said. Her son, Matt, started kindergarten at Walker that year.
What's it like to be the last one standing from the school's debut year?
"It's a special honor. Not one I earned. It's just that time passed and I'm still here," she said. "I'm very loyal. There's a lot of other schools I could have gone to, but I never pursued that, because I just love it here."
That's because the school is like a family, she said.
Stark's spouse, Bert, retired as principal at Vandergriff Elementary School in Fayetteville in 2014. The couple love to travel and look forward to doing more of that. Cornelia Stark wants to spend more time with her parents, who live in her hometown of Quitman.
Stark knew from an early age she wanted to teach. Both of her parents were educators. Stark, the oldest of five children, often "played school" as a child with her siblings.
She's taught third grade for 30 years. It hasn't gotten boring teaching the same grade level year after year, she said.
"Things change, and it's a different group of kids every year. It's a different perspective every year, a different set of needs. The class I have this year is one of the best I've ever had. They're sweet, sweet kids. It's a good time to go out when you have a great class," Stark said.
The biggest change she's seen in students over her career is how many come from single-parent homes. She adds some kids need extra love from their teachers, she said.
"They're not all ready to learn. They have to be loved first before they can learn. All kids have to be loved, but it's just a little bit more important for those kids to get a little extra loving," Stark said.
PATSY MOONEY
Mooney can speak from personal experience about some of the topics she covers in her health classes at Rogers' Heritage High School. One is dealing with grief.
Tragedy struck the night of Aug. 11, 2006. Mooney's son, Jason, was in his boat with a friend in the Coose Hollow area of Beaver Lake when another boat struck them. His friend survived, but Jason Mooney, 23, died of a "blunt force head injury with drowning," according to a news report at the time. His body was found about 14 hours later.
Patsy Mooney said her son was "doing all the right things" with his life. He had a job and an apartment. He'd just paid off his Jeep Grand Cherokee. He was very proud of the boat he'd just bought, though Patsy Mooney had told him she thought he should invest in a house first.
She credits her faith in God for getting her through the ordeal of losing her only child. She shares the experience with her students.
She received $300,000 from the other boater's insurance policy after Jason's death. She used the money to create what she calls the Jason Fund. All of the money goes toward charitable causes, she said.
She's endured other personal challenges since Jason's death, including the deaths of two nephews and a brother.
Margaret Elenbarger, an English teacher at Heritage High, was a sophomore when she took Mooney's health class in 2006. Elenbarger said what she remembers most about the class was Mooney's sense of humor and an environment where students felt safe discussing some sensitive topics.
Partly because of Mooney's example, Elenbarger wants to teach in Rogers for at least 40 years.
"She has weathered great tragedies that could have broken her spirit, but instead, Mrs. Mooney turned her pain into love that helps students through scholarships and volunteerism. Mrs. Mooney is a legend," Elenbarger said.
Mooney grew up in Rogers, graduating from Rogers High School in 1970. Four years later, after graduating college, she returned seeking a job with the district. She accepted a job as a physical education teacher at the elementary level.
Two years later she got a position at the high school teaching girls physical education and cheerleading. She began teaching health full-time in 1992. She's also been involved as sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter since 1982.
Mooney, 66, tells a story from her first year working at Rogers High School in the mid-1970s that demonstrates how much has changed over her career.
She had a seventh-hour class of 37 boys. She wasn't much older than them and they weren't treating her with much respect.
"This was before anyone talked about sexual harassment," she said. "But it was horrible dealing with those boys."
One day, fed up with their behavior, Mooney had each of the boys line up with their hands against the wall. She swatted each of them as hard as she could with a paddle.
"I went into the hall and just shook," she said. "When I came back in, it was, 'Yes ma'am, no ma'am.' It totally changed them. We went to the track, and when I said 'Four laps,' they said, 'Yes ma'am.' You could swat them, and it made a difference."
Metro on 05/28/2018