Stickney leaving legacy in two school districts

By BECKY BROOKS

Man­ag­ing Editor

news@gazettepublishingco.com

As the Clyde Ele­men­tary Prin­ci­pal com­pletes her last year — her Vic­tory Lap – Peggy Stickney’s 31 years as a prin­ci­pal and an edu­ca­tor may have a pro­found affect on not only Clyde-Green Springs stu­dents but also those in the Belle­vue City Schools.

Sit­ting in her new office at Clyde Ele­men­tary, Stick­ney had to close the door. The only way chil­dren would not wan­der in to talk to her would be if the door was closed, she explained. Even then, she warned there was still at least one stu­dent who would not let a door stop him from see­ing Mrs. Stickney.

The Elyria High School grad­u­ate com­pleted her edu­ca­tion degree at Bowl­ing Green State Uni­ver­sity and started teach­ing in 1981–82. After grad­u­a­tion, the cur­rent prin­ci­pal met Joe Stick­ney, and they got mar­ried. She started teach­ing for Belle­vue City Schools in 1982–83. Her hus­band taught at Clyde-Green Springs.

Peggy Stick­ney became a near-20 year teacher at Belle­vue Mid­dle School.

“Then I got my master’s in 1985. Then I got my principal’s cer­tifi­cate in Find­lay in 2001.”

She moved from BMS to becom­ing assis­tant prin­ci­pal at York School for two years.

“Then I came here,” she said. Stick­ney left York and took over as prin­ci­pal at Vine Street School for Clyde-Green Springs.

For Stick­ney, the staff at Vine Street School became a fam­ily, and she truly enjoyed each year there work­ing with the chil­dren and staff, she said.

“I closed those doors, moved the mar­ble pil­lars and came to Clyde Ele­men­tary,” she said smiling.

As she was mov­ing closer to retire­ment, the Clyde-Green Springs Exempted Vil­lage School Dis­trict took advan­tage of the Ohio School Facil­ity Com­mis­sion pro­gram. The com­mu­nity passed a 1-percent income tax to build two new schools, ren­o­vate the high school and South Main School – plus demol­ish three build­ings includ­ing her Vine Street School.

The planned called for the staffs of Vine and South Main Street schools to merge into one build­ing – Clyde Ele­men­tary School (for­merly South Main).

“The year before we merged I was meet­ing with a lead­er­ship team of teach­ers,” Stick­ney said. While the South Main Prin­ci­pal, Rod McMas­ter was still in his build­ing – prepar­ing to retire him­self — Stick­ney was over­see­ing Vine and lay­ing the foun­da­tion for a new ele­men­tary school staff at Clyde Elementary.

“It’s not that it wasn’t easy; it was a chal­lenge,” she admit­ted. “It was an expe­ri­ence I cer­tainly never thought I would have near the end of my career.

As she pre­pared for the new school, she was merg­ing the per­son­al­i­ties of two buildings.

“We wanted to get a com­mon vision for the kids,” she said.

Stick­ney — bet­ter than most — under­stands the chal­lenges being faced this year by Belle­vue City Schools where three ele­men­tary build­ings will be merg­ing into one, three-story ele­men­tary school by the start of school 2012–13.

“I actu­ally spent a half day with Shan­non Turner, one of my for­mer stu­dents,” Stick­ney said about shar­ing her notes and expe­ri­ence on the Clyde Ele­men­tary merger.

“I shared my lead­er­ship team note­book with her.”

Merg­ing staffs was not some­thing she ever planned to han­dle as a principal.

“It was some­thing I never thought I would learn,” com­mented the Clyde Ele­men­tary prin­ci­pal who offi­cially retires June 26. Clyde Mid­dle School Assis­tant Prin­ci­pal Rachel Aldrich will be tak­ing over Clyde Ele­men­tary from Stickney.

The cur­rent CES prin­ci­pal said that bring­ing mul­ti­ple build­ings staffs together is a chal­lenge. The con­cen­tra­tion was doing what was best for the chil­dren. Some staff mem­bers do resist change, she admitted.

“I found it was a lot eas­ier not to worry about that,” Stick­ney com­mented. “The rest are going along for the ride.”

The prin­ci­pal said, “You move ahead doing what you know is right.”

As for Turner – she is cur­rently prin­ci­pal of both Bellevue’s Ridge Ele­men­tary and Ellis Ele­men­tary Schools.

At the new Belle­vue Ele­men­tary School, Turner will be one of the two build­ing principals.

Stick­ney, as a for­mer BMS read­ing and lan­guage arts teacher, esti­mated she taught nearly 3,000 stu­dents over her years at Bellevue.

“I read a lot of books with a lot of kids,” she pointed out. “I would not trade one of those years.”

Cur­rently three of her for­mer lan­guage arts stu­dents are now Belle­vue City School admin­is­tra­tors — Turner; and the admin­is­tra­tive team at Belle­vue Mid­dle school – prin­ci­pal John Bollinger and assis­tant prin­ci­pal Cody Cramer. The newest of Stickney’s one-time stu­dents join­ing the BCS admin­is­tra­tion will be Nate Artino – who has been named at Belle­vue Senior High School’s new prin­ci­pal tak­ing his post this summer.

“I called him when he got the job,” Stick­ney said about con­grat­u­lat­ing Artino. “He sounds so committed.”

As much as Stick­ney loved teach­ing at Belle­vue, she lived in Clyde at the time, and there was that com­mu­nity rivalry.

“I was always the reminder that there were nice peo­ple in Clyde,” she said about being a Belle­vue teacher.

When the job opened at Vine Street School, she made the move. “I never left a job I didn’t love,” she said about leav­ing BMS and York. “Com­ing here was a great thing for me,” she said about going to Vine.

Stick­ney – now only weeks away from leav­ing her newest school – said all of best mem­o­ries of the last 31 years are about students.

At BMS, she remem­bers teach­ing stu­dents while read­ing a novel and then play­ing the movie based on the same novel. She said stu­dents would become upset by the changes and inter­pre­ta­tions of the movie direc­tor which did not match how they envi­sioned the novel – and she truly enjoyed that ded­i­ca­tion by her kids.

“Teach­ing the eighth grade about the Holo­caust,” she said, “was very, very emo­tional for me. I learned as they learned.”

When her stu­dents became involved in the les­son they were learn­ing with­out even know­ing they were learn­ing, she shared.

As prin­ci­pal, Stick­ney said she still has con­cen­trated on the stu­dents and bring­ing fam­i­lies together and inter­act­ing with the school. “I’m all about school being the safe and happy place,” she stressed.

“You’re gonna get a smile and you can hug there.”

Stick­ney, whose hus­band is retired and who has two adult sons, said she does not yet know what retire­ment will bring.

“I have to find out what it’s like to not work,” she admit­ted. After work­ing with the Clyde Elementary’s staff, she may enjoy men­tor­ing young teach­ers and work­ing in team build­ing in the future, she commented.

But, she noted, there could also be some time in Florida in her future.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Jun 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.