Educators take decades of knowledge with them in retirement

Now that the school year has come to an end, some students won’t return to the halls of learning, as they step into their next phase of the future. Likewise, some teachers will also not return, instead, focusing on the next chapter – retirement.

Mary Balko

In the Cadott School District, fourth-grade teacher Mary Balko is one who decided it was time to step down from the life of full-time education. Balko, a Tomahawk native, has been with the district for 33 years, when she started out teaching sixth grade.

“So much has changed,” said Balko. “In 1983, the kids were learning basic keyboarding skills on Apple IIe computers in a lab. Now, we are a one-to-one school, as far as technology is concerned. When I first started teaching, it was more direct instruction.”

Balko says there is a lot more emphasis on discovery, and students working together and learning from each other, and using that technology to do so.

While Balko will substitute for the district, she wants to spend more time with her family, especially her grandchildren.

“I’ve taught with so many incredible educators over the years,” said Balko. “Many have become great friends and I learned so much from them. I also learned tons from the students I’ve taught.”

Annie Danielson

For Annie Danielson, Lake Holcombe reading specialist, she’s been with the district for 18 years, which is her entire educational career.

“This was my first teaching job,” she said.

Coming from Davenport, Iowa, Danielson came to Cornell in 1976, and graduated from high school there, before marrying Cadott native, Doug Danielson; the couple has been married 35 years, and have three children and one grandchild.

Since she’s always been a reading interventionist – and got her master’s as a reading specialist – Danielson says not a lot has changed in that respect.

“Not everybody develops at the same age and the same level,” she said. “So, I’ve always just taken kids and given them what I would consider an extra opportunity to practice.”

Danielson thinks smaller, individualized settings are just expanding on what students learn in the traditional classroom. Technology, on the other hand, that’s something that has grown by leaps and bounds.

A few years ago, Danielson even received a grant for remote learning, using “Lucky” the robot to help with lessons. When that grant ran out, she took the knowledge she learned and applied it to her interventions.

Showing how technology has changed, books on tape used to be the big thing, but now, kids have access to Chromebooks and apps.

“There’s something in there for everybody,” said Danielson, adding it can be good and bad. “I personally like the one-to-one teacher time.”

While she loves what she does, Danielson says she wouldn’t mind just having one job, instead of two, as she always helped with the family farm, doing the bookwork on nights and weekends.

“It is a lot,” she said. “I hope to have more time to spend with family.”

Danielson also may get some travel in and maybe work on her flower gardens. She also likes hosting parties and taking walks with their golden retriever.

But, she will miss the students, the teachers and the good school district she was part of.

“I’ve truly enjoyed all of this career I’ve had here,” said Danielson. “I love working with kids.”

Bob Rudi

Bob Rudi is also calling it quits, after 22 years with the Lake Holcombe School District on the custodial staff. Rudi grew up in the community and has no plans to go anywhere else.

Rudi is a familiar face in the elementary halls and classrooms, taking care of the school building so the students have a good learning environment. Unfortunately, with carpets becoming less of a mainstay, the floors aren’t the friend of knees or backs, even though it’s easier to keep clean.

“Being on concrete, it’s harder,” said Rudi. As part of the custodial staff, Rudi says it’s not just cleaning, but also maintenance, tear-down and set-up for events, that are part of the daily responsibilities.

“We’ve done so much here,” he said. “People don’t realize, they think being a janitor, you just push a broom or a mop. And it’s always been interesting and a lot of new challenges.”

Rudi worked with a lot of nice people over the years, but is excited for his next adventure, even if he doesn’t really know what that will look like.

“I really don’t know yet,” he said. There are projects to do at home and he likes to fish, so he and his wife will keep busy.

“We’re going to have fun,” said Rudi. “Enjoy one another.”

Nancy Sima

She taught speech language pathology in Lake Holcombe for 18 years, but Nancy Sima actually grew up in Cadott, where she met her husband later on, after he returned from the Navy. Sima started teaching in Stanley, as the youngest at that district, something she can no longer say.

“Wow, look, I’m the oldest teacher here,” said Sima.

After a bit in Stanley, she “retired” to raise her daughter, but did have 12-15 long-term substitute jobs.

“That kind of kept me up on changing trends in the field and special education,” she said.

Sima even accompanied her husband to Alaska, so he could attend Bible school, but when they moved back, she was hired at Lake Holcombe, after she had subbed there for a teacher on maternity leave.

Over the years, Sima says helping students changed, as those who guide special education “figured it out.”

“Kids and their disabilities were better addressed, because things got better,” said Sima. “Call me old-fashioned, but I think it’s really important that kids communicate with each other and not through a device.”

Now that her school days are finished, Sima has a lot of organizing to do at home, with a desire to find a place for everything, and deciding what is important and what isn’t.

She and her husband, Greg, who is also a pastor, also have a business making covered water bed rails, in a niche market, and make birch bark items, with an upholstery business, as well. Sima also likes to repurpose things that are deemed useless and gardening, as well as spending time with her two children and three grandchildren.

However, she will miss the school, the teachers and the kids, whose lives she’s been part of for so long.

“This is a teacher community, but also a family community,” she said.

Pam Starkey

Also stepping back from her position with the Lake Holcombe School District after 18 years, is Pam Starkey, principal’s secretary and student records. Starkey came to the district after spending 27 years at Mount Scenario College in Ladysmith, as an admissions secretary, then office manager/admissions.

When the college closed its doors, the Sheldon native was hired on at Lake Holcombe, and while she says the job hasn’t changed, state requirements have.

“State reporting is all done electronically,” she said. “It’s become quite involved.”

Included in her duties, was rounding up substitutes for the school.

“That’s probably one of the more challenging issues,” said Starkey.

She and her husband, Scott, have been married 47 years, with three kids and three grandchildren, and while Starkey knows the couple will keep busy in their retirement, she isn’t sure what that will look like.

“Otherwise, I don’t know, just going to kind of relax for a while and not have to hear that phone ring in the morning,” she said, adding if someone called in sick, she was the person to call, no matter the hour. “That was just all part of the job.”

Something in the works, is a trip the Netherlands, to see their famous fields and fields of tulips, and to visit her mother’s roots. Starkey also likes to grow flowers and loves pontooning in the summertime.

She says she will miss everyone she works with and her job, as the day never brought what she thought it would.

“There’s always something different happening and I think that’s what’s so fun about it,” said Starkey.