Nine Educators Retiring in Belmont

Nine local educators are retiring at the end of this school year.

The group of Belmont Public Schools' employees includes three elementary school classroom teachers and two support teachers, three central office administrators and one building principal.

The retirees are:

● Melanie Carlson, third grade teacher, Winn Brook Elementary

● Marshall Levy, fourth grade teacher, Winn Brook Elementary

● Rosemary Jeans, third grade teacher, Wellington Elementary

● Sharon Matthews, reading specialist, Butler Elementary

● Nancy Martin, resource teacher, Winn Brook Elementary

● Gerry Missal, director of finance, administration and capital planning, administration

● Denis Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent, administration

● Julia Silverman, human resources manager, administration

● Deborah Alexander, principal, Chenery Middle School

A short conversation with two of the retirees.

Sharon Matthews

Sharon Matthews has been teaching students how to read for 32 years.

For Matthews, a reading specialist at Butler Elementary for the last 22 years, reading is more than just speaking the words on the page. It serves as a gateway to discovery, she said.

"Reading is a search for meaning," she said recently. "Beyond letters on a page, teaching reading is about teaching children to be aware of their thought processes as they step in, journey through and step out of a text.

"My mantra has always been that, 'There's nothing more important than your thinking.' Hundreds of children have heard that very phrase, as they go off to discover their own ideas and listen to their mind at work."

Before coming to Butler, Matthews taught reading at Chenery Middle School for five years, at Winn Brook Elementary for one year and in Baltimore City, Md., for four years.

In Belmont, Matthews relished working with a supportive administrative team, which encouraged creative methods and always supplied needed materials, and a community, which committed to the schools financially and trusted teachers to delve into complex issues, such as racism.

"What I have been most grateful for in my tenure in Belmont is that I have experienced a culture of 'Yes,'" she said. "Administrators, such as Bruce MacDonald, principal at Butler for most of my career, and Pat Aubin, assistant superintendent, realized the power of research based methods, professional development workshops, a thinking-centered curriculum and faculty collaboration."

Matthews said she has also worked with amazing colleagues.

"They are thinkers, readers, motivators," she said. "I will miss them terribly, but together we have understood that teaching and learning is joyful work."

Gerry Missal

In his 10 years, Gerry Missal has found Belmont to be a place where all sides are committed to helping students achieve their dreams.

"We have dedicated parents in town," said Missal, director of finance, administration and capital planning for Belmont Public Schools. "Families move to Belmont for the sake of our schools, and they have high expectations of us, high expectations of their own children. It's then our challenge to meet those expectations."

Missal's core responsibilities have been developing a budget, accounting for that budget and overseeing bus transportation, maintenance, school lunch and capital projects.

Under Missal's watch, the district has moved forward with the new Wellington Elementary School project and developed a master plan for major renovations at the high school. It has switched to much larger bulk purchasing for supplies through The Education Cooperative out of Wellesley, saving money and moved to collaborative bidding for natural gas with about eight other school districts, also saving money.

The district also completed a comprehensive energy audit that reduced its energy consumption by 20 percent.

In addition to these larger projects, Missal said the yearly task of constructing a prudent budget has been gratifying.

"One of the things that I find very satisfying is working with the superintendent, the administrative team and the school committee to develop a school budget under tight fiscal times every year that protects instruction in the classroom," he said. "We've been able to do that for 10 straight years now. This year is one of the tightest. A lot is going to depend on the override passing June 14."

Missal said he has enjoyed working with an incredible staff in Belmont that has been dedicated to improving the school system.

Prior to Belmont, Missal worked in various school business offices in suburban Boston for 20 years. He began his career as a physics teacher in Pennsylvania.

He said he plans to consult and volunteer at the Watertown Food Pantry and Project Bread in retirement. He has done the Walk for Hunger, a Project Bread event, for 20 years.