“The sun rises in the East and sets in the West,” a saying infamously plastered on the walls throughout St. Charles East High School. The time has come this year for the sun to set for 14 staff members and their time at East, including English teacher Courtenay Burkhart, assistant principal for Student Life Lisa Dandre, science teacher Regina D’Souza, dean of students Eric Hofer, administration assistant Patty Hofer, technology educator Gary Hoskins, deans’ assistant Spencer Huffman, administrative assistant for Student Life Karen Kobler, registrar Julie Peterburs, science teacher Bryan Sloan, English teacher Laura Smith, government teacher William Stepien, math teacher Darcy Ullman and special education student worker Sharon Young.

While everybody’s presence will be missed at STCE, we are excited about the lives these staff members will pursue outside of East. Before these staff members left, our X-Ray staff reached out to them to gather their last thoughts before their departure.

Many staff members shared bittersweet feelings about retirement after their long and fruitful careers in education and beyond. While many said they feel sad about leaving students and teaching, everybody expressed excitement about what the future holds in store for them. 

Some are looking forward to spending time relaxing with families while others have plans to stay active in the community and reconnect with their hobbies.

Peterburs has been a registrar for 16 years and recently bought a new home with her husband in Tennessee where they plan to move and enjoy the new area. 

Ullman has been a teacher at East for 35 years, one of which was spent as a teacher’s assistant. She said that she has no set plans but also wants to travel a lot more. “The advice that I’ve been given is not to make plans to begin with, and kind of to settle in,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting to travel a lot during any time that I’d like, instead of just when teachers have days off.”

Similarly, Young, who’s been working in education for over 30 years and has been working at East since 2008, plans on visiting family in California, New York, Wisconsin and around Illinois as well as traveling around to Door County and more.

D’Souza, who has been teaching at East for 15 years, plans to take art classes, volunteer at her church, join a book club, garden and travel the world.

Hoskins has been working for fifty years since he was fifteen years old. Twenty of those years have been spent teaching middle school, and his last five have been teaching high school here at East; he figured it was time to take a break. He plans to travel with his wife and meet his relatives around the country, including his two new granddaughters. To summarize in Hoskins’ words, “We’re gonna travel a little bit, take care of some home business and just enjoy not having to get up at 4:30 every morning.”

Sloan has been teaching for 34 years, 26 of which have been at East. He said that he’s looking to get a part-time job and continue to work on projects around the house.

Eric Hofer has been working at East for 19 years while Patty Hofer has worked at East for 23 years. The two plan on coming back to East to work as a dean’s assistant and substitute teacher respectively and are excited to be able to travel to visit their grandson in Arizona.

Stepien plans to sub at East and continue being the Mock Trial Advisor, saying, “My wife teaches at Wredling. She’s planning on teaching for a few more years, and so during that time, I would like to continue to be the Mock Trial advisor and the days that we have practice, maybe sub.”

Burkhart has been teaching for 38 years, including 7 years at the college and middle school level before spending 31 years teaching at East. Although he loves teaching here, he’s excited to have more time to spend with family or traveling. Though he said he probably won’t be returning as a substitute or dean’s assistant, he’s looking to find a part-time job working with books, whether that be at a library or at a bookstore.

With such a diverse range of expertise amongst the retiring staff this year, many different memorable moments were shared. Many staff members fondly recalled memories of simple but classic East events and found joy in just watching students show off their skills or spending time with fellow staff members.

“There are other small moments of students that just get excited about something that we’re learning about,” said Burkhart. “Those are great memories too.”

D’Souza agreed with this sentiment, saying, “Some memorable moments in my career are the many positive interactions I’ve had with students, parents and my colleagues at East High School. I really enjoyed seeing our students perform in Band, Orchestra, Theater and a variety of sports.”

Peterburs recalled fond memories of her time at East with students as well, including watching the football games and band. When her daughter went to East and played softball, Peterburs’ favorite memories came from watching her and being a part of the program.

Hoskins recalled his positive interactions with students struggling with staying on track, and how his own past struggles as a student helped him better understand their situations. “Being able to identify with them and being able to understand how they are feeling and what they’re going through and being able to get them back on track is one of the highlights of my career,” he said.

Eric Hofer stated that his favorite moments at East have been “when students come back after graduation and we have conversations.” He cherishes being able to see the growth of the kids who have passed through the halls, and also the ones still at East. In her interview, Patty Hofer reflected that her favorite moment was meeting her husband Eric Hofer.

Ullman emphasized her gratitude for the kindness in her department, saying, “My department is amazing, and they’re very supportive and helpful. I hope to remain lifelong friends with them because they’re very special to me.” She extended this notion to students as well, saying, “I should say too that when students appreciate the effort you put in and the results that they get because of it, that’s really like the icing on the cake.”

Other staff members truly took pride in the accomplishments that they’ve made as well as their students. With many of the retiring staff members having experience with extracurriculars, sports or academic teams, there was much they found to celebrate about their time here at East.

D’Souza expressed her enjoyment in seeing her students win a State Science Olympiad award in the 2011-2012 school year, having started the club at East herself. She explained how she enjoyed her Science Olympiad students’ dedication and motivation for the subject, saying, “It was a pure joy to lead a team of dedicated students who were self-motivated – their outstanding performances at the Regionals competition allowed them to advance to State at the University of Illinois in Champaign and bring home the first place Science Olympiad trophy!”

Burkhart said that some of his favorite memories came from his time coaching the speech team for 28 years. From weekend tournaments to hosting events at East, the time he spent working with speech students was the time he found most memorable. Sloan shared this same sentiment, saying that some of his favorite memories came from coaching girls’ basketball for over 20 years.

Likewise, Stepien said that his favorite memories have been from advising Mock Trial and the success that the team has had, especially this year. “We’ve won our last two competitions and [the students] work so hard and figure all of this stuff out and we’re just like, ‘Oh my God, this is awesome.’” He further explained, “I just love that group of people because they love to be together. They work really hard for fun. It’s been a good move to get involved in that.”

Some staff members shared memories that were memorable more so due to their misfortune, but ended up memorable nonetheless and sometimes brought people closer together in their aftermath. 

“When we closed because of mold way back in the day, when we closed because of COVID, when we closed because of swine […], those [were] some big things that were very unusual,” said Ullman.

Stepien recalled a more specific unfortunate moment during a staff basketball game, saying, “We had a faculty student basketball game in the gym, and I tore my ACL while I was playing, and I was in so much pain and was rolling on the ground and just absolutely cursing like crazy and the gym was quiet.” However, he insisted that it ended up being a funny moment. “Yeah, so I needed surgery after all that, but I think that was something that’s kind of funny in a bad way.”

Nevertheless, the retiring staff have all come out of their time here at East with valuable lessons and takeaways, both about themselves and about the students they’ve worked with. Many staff members elaborated on the personal growth they’ve gone through over the years, both as an educator and as a person.

“Every single day you teach, it’s a new adventure, and everything you have planned for a day isn’t necessarily what you’re going to teach that day, so you have to be super flexible,” said Sloan.

Burkhart shared how he’s learned not to take everything too personally through his time here at East. “Students have their own lives, and in a class period, there may be something that they’re dealing with,” he said. “Early on in my career, maybe I would take offense that they’re not hanging on every word and reading everything we’re doing. I feel like [now, I’ve learned that] I can’t take that personally.”

Stepien shared this same thought, saying, “I think I have learned a lot about putting yourself out there and just trusting because it is kind of vulnerable being a teacher. People can be critical of you, people can make fun of you, people can do all of these things,” he said. “You just have to put yourself out there and understand that it is a part of [teaching] and try not to take it personally.”

Furthermore, Stepien explained how being a teacher has become a big part of his identity. “What’s hard is that […] teaching in particular becomes a big part of your identity, and it’ll be weird not having that as part of your identity anymore. It’s something that just connects with your personality.”

Hoskins described his transition from two decades of teaching middle school to high school. Although jarring at first, his shift from a more solo teaching environment to working alongside his peers exposed him to a new learning experience. “At East, I have multiple people that I work with now, great people that I enjoy working with, and it’s important to learn how to share and how to work together as a team and respect each other’s ideas.”

D’Souza explained how she has learned valuable lessons about how to optimize student learning even from those who don’t teach the same subjects, highlighting an experience in an observation group with other teachers and how inspiring it was to learn from everyone else. “Making learning meaningful for students and empowering students to do the best they can is more valuable than simply focusing on assessments and grades,” she said. “Building relationships with colleagues across different disciplines is invaluable. Some of the best lessons I have learned are from observing teachers not only in science but also across different disciplines.”

Furthermore, many retirees shared their takeaways about students after years of observing them cycle through high school.

“Some people tend to not be truthful, which is sad running through registration with people who aren’t always honest with me about where they live so that they can go to school here,” said Peterburs. “So it’s kind of made me a little skeptical of some people’s moral compass, I guess. But for the most part, I’ve learned to talk to just about anybody.”

Young expressed her love for her job at East and how it comes runner-up to being a mother. “My job has always been focused on helping others find their own path to learning. Second Best job ever- best job is being a Mom.”

Stepien shared lessons that students have taught him and how he believes that they also apply to teaching. “One of the things my seniors always say as they reflect on their time in high school is [that] they wish they hadn’t been so self-conscious and worried about all of the things that you worry about in high school.” He went on to explain, “So, in a way, I feel the same way about teaching.” 

“Nobody wants to fail. Students don’t fail intentionally,” said Ullman. “There’s usually an underlying reason, and if people aren’t being kind or cordial or respectful, it’s usually because there’s something else going on. So if you can show grace and patience and try to get to the root of the problem, you can usually get through to the person.”

All in all, it is undeniable that these retirees are walking out of East with many new stories, friends and lessons they’ve not only taught but learned as well. Like all of us will eventually walk out of East as different people than when we walked in, it is these staff members and more we have to thank for aiding our growth and creating this environment full of memories.

In their final messages to students, many shared their passions for how their teachings have had an impact on their students. Many spoke to the importance of their respective subjects on students’ learning in different ways, whether it be English, math, science or social studies–every student takes away something new from each class.

Burkhart talked about how English applies to a greater sense of literacy in life moving forward. “That’s pretty much life. Speaking, listening, reading, writing, everything we do involves those things,” he said. “So I see it as a basis for everything that students are going to be doing for the rest of their lives. It’s that important.”

D’Souza talked about how learning about science has many benefits that help increase a student’s overall knowledge. “Learning science provides a range of benefits including enhancing critical thinking skills, fostering curiosity, developing problem-solving abilities, encouraging creativity, building a foundation for future careers, promoting environmental awareness and providing a deeper understanding of the world around us.” She summarized by saying, “Essentially, science education equips individuals with the tools to analyze information, ask questions and navigate complex issues in everyday life and various fields.“

Stepien explained why he began teaching government and similar classes, saying, “I think what drew me to it when I was a student in college was that it helps to really explain a lot of things about yourself and other people.” He further explained, “I usually find that students appreciate when you’re just trying to help them figure it out, I feel like it really gives you sort of the ideas and vocabulary to understand yourself and other people, and I think that’s important work.”

“I feel like there are a lot of life problem-solving [and perseverance] skills that students can take away from putting in a conscious effort into being successful in math class,” said Ullman. “If you don’t get it at first, keep trying. There isn’t always one right way to get to the end result. So it’s okay to be creative in math, and math is a building block. The rules never change. We just keep adding to them.”

When asked to give their final messages to East students, many shared their words of wisdom.

Peterburs’ final advice was for students to not worry about their high school grades too much. “Don’t sweat your GPA or your classes here,” she said. “When you move on from here to the next phase, so many things change, to either college or work, it really doesn’t matter anymore, it’s what you make of your life after you leave here.”

Burkhart shared similar thoughts, encouraging students to “try your hardest, and don’t sweat it. Things are going to work out.”

D’Souza shared several messages that she wants to give to students: “Be kind to yourself and to your peers. Always remain curious about the world around you. Ask questions and be a problem solver. Take responsibility for your own learning and don’t ever hesitate to ask for help from your teachers when you are struggling with hard-to-understand learning material.”

Stepien’s final messages focused on finding belonging wherever you go and being mindful of everybody’s personal situations. “Everybody’s got a lot on their mind. Everybody’s doing the best they can. Everybody’s, you know, on the same team.” He went on, saying, “Everybody’s just a squirrel looking for a nut, and everyone’s doing the best they can and [we should] support each other. If somebody does something stupid or irritating or something like that, you know you do stuff like that, so just sort of get past it, and let’s make the best of our time together.”

Hoskins’ message to students at East centered on remaining hopeful and staying strong in trying times. “Just know that wherever you are now, things are going to be different as you grow older. Your life right now is wrapped up in a bunch of things and it’s going to change, but it will get better. You will have a lot more independence and a lot more opportunities, so hang in there.” 

Patty Hofer similarly stressed the importance of having patience in your day-to-day life, saying, “Take one day at a time and move forward from what may have happened that day.”

 Eric Hofer’s message resonated deeply with the overall message of how East has been a gift to its retirees, saying, “The sun always rises in the east, [and] St. Charles East is family.”

Finally, Ullman, D’Souza and Young all would like students to always believe in themselves and dream big. “Believe you can do anything you set your mind to,” said Young. “Surround yourself with those that will support your dream.”

The X-Ray staff encourages everyone to congratulate these staff members for long and successful careers here at East and beyond, just as we hope these staff members will find success in all they do past East’s doors. As a new generation of Saints enters the building, it’s with the memories of these staff members that we will continue to honor their legacy even when they’re not around to see it.