BY KATHERINE ROSENBERG, Editor

LUCERNE VALLEY - After 39 years at the Lucerne Valley Elementary School, Sharon Smith is retiring at the close of the school year.

And after that much time in a single District, let alone a single school, she understandably has mixed emotions about it.

“I’m looking forward to it in some ways and in others I’m not,” Smith said.

At last Wednesday’s Lucerne Valley Unified School District’s bi-monthly meeting, Smith was honored and recognized by the Board. School Board member Julia Bell even served as principal at the school for a time while Smith was teaching.

She said that she’s seen about eight or nine principals come and go in her 39 years, all while she has only changed classrooms a few times.

Current elementary school Principal Suzette Davis said that Ms. Smith is and always has been one of the teachers students most frequently ask about when returning to campus to visit.

“One of our fifth grade teachers even asked her kids at the end of the year, ‘if you could have any teacher for sixth grade, who would it be?’ and so many of them said Ms. Smith — even though she teaches first grade,” Davis relayed.

“A group of those boys have all written her letters and they ask why she’s leaving,” Davis added.

Smith said that she has taught everything from first grade to fifth grade and has enjoyed all of her time at the school.

Most vividly she remembers when the child of Jody Watson — a local pump technician who she had in her first year of teaching — entered into her class.

“That was the first time that happened, I’ll never forget it,” Smith said.

A graduate of Cal State San Bernardino, Smith took this as her first teaching job and even lived in a small rental home near the school that she rented from a school board member in her first two years. She said that she doesn’t like change, and although she considered changing schools, never wanted to go through with it.

“I will miss the students, and the other teachers, but I won’t miss the lesson plans,” Smith joked. “My favorite thing is making a difference in the kids’ lives; seeing them grow from the beginning of the school year to the end.”

She said she also liked teaching the upper grades where, she said, some students have already become disillusioned with school.

“You get to help them like school again and get them interested,” she said.

Over the years she said a lot of the studies have remained the same, but she did say that math has become much more advanced and complex than the way it was previously taught.

In retirement Smith plans to catch up on some traveling, starting with some foliage seeking in Boston during the fall.

Davis added, “no matter if the kids are still here or if they’ve moved on, everyone just loves Ms. Smith.”