September 29, 2005

Theresa Newton is retiring this week after working for 30 years in the Yellow Springs Board of Education office.

By Diane Chiddister

The early morning fog last Wednesday prompted the Yellow Springs school district to delay the start of the day by two hours, giving some an opportunity to linger a while in the land of nod. But for Teresa Newton, the delay meant getting up even earlier than usual — and she usually wakes up before dawn to do her job for the Yellow Springs schools.

Each weekday morning, Newton, who serves as the district transportation supervisor, is on the phone with her bus drivers by 6:45, dealing with questions, schedules and last-minute changes. But when bad weather visits, she gets a call from Superintendent Tony Armocida at 6, and if school is canceled or delayed, Newton calls area media with the information. She then watches each TV station to make sure they got it right, and if they didn’t, such as last Wednesday, she calls again.

The attention to detail Newton displayed last Wednesday has been repeated daily for the past 30 years. This week, she will retire after three decades as administrative assistant to the superintendent and almost two decades as supervisor of transportation.

“I want to say thank you,” Newton said. “The staff, the board members, the community, they have been good to me.”

That Newton’s message to the community is one of gratitude comes as no surprise to those who have worked closely with her over the years. She is unfailingly gracious, kind and competent, they said, and is leaving behind big shoes to fill.

“I don’t know of anyone who represents the school district better than Teresa does,” said Armocida, noting that she is often the first person people speak to when they call the Board of Education office with a question or concern. Armocida also said that he has rarely made a decision without consulting Newton. “She’s a great advisor,” he said, “and a wonderful co-worker and friend.”

Newton also embodies “some of the best values of the community,” Armocida said. She makes clear her acceptance of all people, strongly believes that the school district must focus first on children’s needs, and is always willing to go the extra step to help out, he said.

Starting Oct. 1, Newton’s responsibilities will be spread out among four different people: bus driver Susie Butler will take over as transportation supervisor, clerical assistant Sharon Horne will perform the bus dispatching duties; Mills Lawn secretary Susan Griffith will become the superintendent’s administrative assistant; and Eva Anderson, the assistant to the treasurer, will also take on portions of Newton’s job.

When Armocida asked Newton to write out her job duties, she filled up almost two pages with a long list of specifics, including handling all employee records, helping teachers with licensure, advertising job openings, keeping track of salaries and writing up the agendas and minutes of Board of Education meetings.

Most days, Newton said, she comes into work with a project in mind to complete, and most days the project goes by the wayside as she takes phone calls, answers questions and deals with the most pressing needs. Once, Newton said, she thrived on the multitasking involved in her work, but lately she’s found that she needs more organization to keep track of it all, a sign to her, she said, that it’s time to move on.

And that’s only the administrative assistant part of her work — several times daily, when the school buses go out, Newton is on a walkie-talkie with bus drivers, making sure that children get from school to home safely. To further ensure safety, she has instituted a training session for kindergarten students and their parents. She also personally checks out bus stops to make sure that they are in a location that promotes children’s safety, according to Armocida.

There are so many things to keep track of to ensure students’ safety, Newton said, and although she’s grateful that her drivers are top-notch and caring, she said she feels the weight of that responsibility deeply.

All of Newton’s duties add up to a long day. It starts at 6:45, then she comes in to work at 8:30. She stays until 5 or 5:30 p.m. most days, she said.

Newton said she won’t mind leaving behind the long hours. As the bulletin board beside her desk testifies, she is devoted to her family. On the board and around her desk sit scores of photos of her two children and her four grandchildren. She looks forward to having more time to spend with them, she said.

But she will miss the view from the window next to her desk, which looks out onto the Mills Lawn School playground, where she can sometimes see her own grandchildren at play. When she first took her job in 1976, the proximity to the school, which her two children attended at the time, helped to ease her transition into the working world.

That year was pivotal in her life, Newton said. It was the year her mother died, the year she bought her first house, and the year she became a single parent after starting divorce proceedings.

“It was a strong turning point,” she said. “I became my own person.”

Her job with the school district helped her get through a difficult time, Newton said, and the security it offered “gave me a strong base.”

In addition to Armocida, Newton has worked through the tenures of Superintendents Ed McKinney, who hired her, Paul Folmer and Ken Yonkee. She has seen many changes over the years, most significantly, the transition from typewriters to computers, a change she thought “would be the end of the world,” she said. But she brought in instruction books, taught herself, and now, she said, loves her computer.

She has also seen change among the district’s students, Newton said, a change that sometimes saddens her. They seem to grow up more quickly these days, she said, leaving childhood too soon behind.

While Newton looks forward to more time with her family and friends, she knows that she will miss her co-workers and many friends in the district. But she consoles herself knowing that, after this week, when she sees people downtown, she’ll have the luxury of unscheduled time to stop and chat for a while.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com