The atmosphere was party-like at Hillcrest Elementary School on June 5 as students and staff wished longtime principal Theresa McVey goodbye.
After 12 years as principal preceded by three years as assistant principal at the Catonsville school, McVey will retire June 30.
She's far from the only longtime Hillcrest educator turning in her keys after school ends for students on June 18.
Five other staff members will be retiring this month from the Frederick Road elementary school who have combined for nearly 150 years teaching and working at Hillcrest.
First-grade teachers Denise Reitz and Neysa Silvestri, fourth-grade teachers Pamela Posner and Barbara Hauck and Hillcrest speech therapist Teresa Kenney will also retire this month.
For McVey, the decision to leave required some help.
"The kids, for me, are the most difficult goodbye," she said.
Many of the students stop her in the halls to ask her why she's leaving and to insist to her that she's not old enough to retire, she said.
On June 5, as the students sang and danced to her favorite Beatles songs in a surprise send-off assembly, many ran up to her to hug her and tell her they love her.
Nevertheless, she promised her family last summer that the 2014-2015 school year would be her final year, and they will be there on her final day to walk out the doors with her for the last time, she said.
Most of this school year has been spent saying goodbyes and setting the stage for a new head of the school, the former speech pathologist said. With 12 vacancies to fill in the Hillcrest staff, she had her work cut out for her, but she said she is wrapping up her time at the school proud of her accomplishments.
"It's taken a lot of hours, thought, collaboration and work" to run the school, she said. But every positive interaction she has had with students and parents has made it worth it.
As her final day draws nearer, she said she has been getting a lot of nice notes in her email inbox thanking her for her work at Hillcrest. "You look back and you just go 'OK, I did make a difference,'" she said.
When Posner leaves Hillcrest for good June 18, it will be the close of a chapter that has lasted most of her life.
"It's been quite a journey," said the fourth-grade teacher, who has taught in Catonsville for 46 years, five at Westowne Elementary School and 41 years at Hillcrest. Even after more than four decades at Hillcrest, Posner swears it feels like she's been at the school fewer than 15. "Time goes by so fast," she said.
Growing up in a big family in Baltimore City and Pikesville, she said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher. "I always enjoyed children," she said, adding that her parents stressed the importance of education while she was growing up.
Over the years, she has watched with pride as many of her students have gone on to successful careers in almost every field imaginable, she said. A few future teachers have even passed through her classroom, she said. Several of her students have been the children of previous students.
"I've had mothers and their sons and daughters," Posner said. "That's really great."
Hauck, too, said she has seen generations of Catonsville families in her classroom.
"I'm like six degrees of separation of Catonsville," she said. "When I shop on the weekends, I don't go to Catonsville."
Hauck has spent her entire 44-year career at Hillcrest Elementary, making her the longest-running Hillcrest teacher retiring from the school this year.
In 1971, the Pittsburgh native moved to Maryland for the job at Hillcrest. Later this month, she will move back to Pittsburgh to rejoin the family she left there more than four decades ago. After undergoing surgery on her leg, which will require about a four-month recovery, she said she plans to volunteer at local senior centers and nursing homes.
Even after she leaves Catonsville, the fourth-grade teacher's legacy will carry on.
Kate Delker's son and daughter had Hauck while they were in elementary school. While the teacher had a reputation for being tough, Delker said her kids flourished under Hauck's instruction.
"A-plus, 100 percent, gold star all the way," is how she describes the longtime educator.
"She was different, but good different," said Delker's son, Zachary, who sat in Hauck's fifth-grade class in 2007. His sister, Lucy, was in Hauck's classroom two years later.
"She was one of the first teachers that got you prepared for middle school and high school," said Zack Delker, who graduated from Catonsville High School last month.
Known for giving out king-size candy to students, Hauck is also known by students for her sense of humor, he said. At roll call on the very first day of school, Delker said Hauck announced to the class that his name sounded like it should be the name of a cheese. "She knew that we were old enough to understand that it was a joke," he said.
Silvestri and Reitz spent their careers with some of Hillcrest's youngest students.
For Reitz, her teaching journey began at Our Lady of Victory School, where she spent five years teaching before taking a job at Chadwick Elementary School. In 1992, she said, she joined the staff of Hillcrest and never looked back.
"The faculty and staff has always been very close" at Hillcrest, she said. "I think we're like family."
Though she said it doesn't feel like she has been teaching for nearly as long as she has been, there are occasional moments when it sinks in that she has seen 23 years' worth of students pass through her classroom. Not long ago, she said, she was at a basketball game in the area and a former student approached her to introduce her two children to Reitz.
"That's a feeling like, boy, I have been doing this long," she said.
Laughing with Silvestri over pranks the six first-grade teachers — a group they refer to as "the first grade team" — have played on one another over the years, Reitz said they plan on staying in touch after they walk out the school's doors for the last time on June 18. But for now, she wants to spend time with her family, including a new grandchild.
"Both my daughters are married and, now with the grandbaby, I get to do things," she said.
Silvestri plans to use her newfound down time to help care for her elderly mother and spend time with her family. She will also begin a new role as a student teacher supervisor for the University of Maryland in the fall.
The Catonsville native has spent all but five years of her 30-year teaching career at Hillcrest. As a result, she said, she has gotten to know a lot of Catonsville families. She even taught her own son when he was in first grade.
"I've gone to former students' weddings," she said. "You become kind of entrenched."
She says she is still in touch with at least a dozen former students.
Though she will miss the daily interactions with students, she said, she knew it was the right time to retire. With what she described as a faster curriculum pace and the integration of more technology into the classroom, Silvestri said she decided to take the opportunity to explore a different direction when she was offered the role at Maryland.
Kenney already has big plans for her retirement after 16 years at the Catonsville school. On June 27, she will move to the beach in North Carolina with her husband. Though her last day is June 19, she has already begun reflecting on her time at Hillcrest. Earlier in the year, Hillcrest's retiring speech therapist began a "Zen folder," complete with letters, pictures and other mementos that evoke good memories from her career.
"I learn something from every interaction," Kenney said.
She added that she has loved her time working both for Hillcrest and for the county helping kids with speech and language problems. "You get to work with kids and their families," she said.
But the time was right to retire, she said.
"You look out and you realize that you're older than a lot of people in that room," she said of meetings with other staff. "It's time for somebody else to do this job."
For Hillcrest parent Dorothy Noble, the loss of the longtime faculty at the end of this school year is somewhat emotional. Her three sons, Gabe, 17, Sam, 15, and Ian, 10, were all students of at least one of the teachers retiring, including Posner, Hauck and Reitz.
"It's been fantastic, having that stability," Noble said of the presence of longtime staff at the school. Each year one of her younger sons was assigned to class with a teacher another son had had, she said, so there was a level of comfort she felt as a parent.
"It's going to be hard," she said, noting that her youngest has one more year left at Hillcrest. "It's going to be a blow to Hillcrest."
Leaving on the last day, all of the Hillcrest retirees agree, won't be easy.
"We're here six hours a day with them. We think about them when we go home," Reitz said of the teachers' bonds with their students "There are going to be tears...I've been crying for a while."
"I think I'll probably be very emotional," said Posner. "It's like family."