Carson City school district honors retiring staff

The Carson City School District honored 32 teachers, administration and staff who retired this year at the School Board meeting Tuesday.

The retirees were all with the district 10 or more years, with a total of 652 years between all of them.

“Evenings like these are often bittersweet,” said Superintendent Richard Stokes. “I am proud to say thanks to these folks and I want to let them know how valuable they are to us this evening.”

The district is losing staff from the administration office, Carson High School, Carson Middle School, Eagle Valley Middle School, Bordewich Bray Elementary School, Empire Elementary School, Fremont Elementary School, Fritsch Elementary, Seeliger Elementary, the Prison Education program and the Adult Education program.

“It has been a wonderful experience working with this district for 25 years,” said Ernest “Cameron” Dain, an English teacher from Carson High. “Thank you for the opportunity to work here.”

Many of the staff members expressed their sadness on leaving, stating the district allowed them to live out their dreams throughout their careers.

“I wanted to say thank you to the district so much for 30 years of being a part of an amazing organization,” said Karen Simms, principal at Bordewich Bray Elementary.

The district will have two principals leaving; Simms, along with Fremont principal Kathleen “Casey” Gilles both have retired.

“I feel so fortunate my entire career was in the best district, in the best state, in the best country,” Gilles said.

Gilles shared a story of one day when she had multiple students approach her inside and outside of school to give her hugs and interact.

“What other profession do you get to build these types of friendships and relationships?” Gilles said. “Thank you for the support, the guidance, the friendship. I can never forget you, I love you all.”

The board also approved a new textbook for the Career and Technical Education classes, Advanced Center Integrated Production Technologies.

The new book will provide a more hands on curriculum for the students in those classes.

“This curriculum nailed it,” said Michelle Lewis, Carson High CTE Administrator.

“It is like the company took our strategic plan and made the curriculum.”

The textbooks will be paid for by the Career and Technical Education grant through the state department.

Associate Superintendent Susan Keema said they will present the textbook to the State Board on June 13 for approval for the grant.

Students from across the district were also honored for athletics, student organizations involvement and academic accomplishment for the year. Principals from each school site in the district, including the Carson Montessori Charter School, provided the names of two students per school.

Students honored were Jordan Seiben and Annalisa Torres-Morales from Bordewich-Bray; Ulissess Clavel Avina and Michelle Gonzalez Castro from Empire; Charlie Flores Ramirez and Emily Lozano Gomez from Fremont; Brenna De Luca and David Stoffer from Fritsch; Anna and Leah Roylance from Mark Twain; Malia Alvarado and Jacob Budd from Seeliger; Noah Bean and Cheyenne Clayson from Carson Montesorri; Danyelle Andrews and Haylee Solorio from Carson Middle School; Conner Lampert and Yesenia Sevilla Montalvo from Eagle Valley Middle School; German Fernandez Hernandez and Arianna Schmidt from Carson High School; and Julia Albiter and Victor Chavez from Pioneer High School.