Cindy Compton once mused among friends about how nice it would be to be chauffeured to school in a limousine on her last day before retirement.
Compton, as it turns out, has the kind of friends who remember wishes and the kind of principal and co-workers intent on making them come true.
They surprised the 51-year- old first-grade teacher yesterday morning by sending a white stretch limo to drive her and four longtime friends and fellow teachers from Compton's Westminster home to Mount Airy Elementary School, where Compton has taught the same grade for 31 years.
The limousine drew curious glances from onlookers as the group made its celebratory 17-mile journey down a hilly, winding two-lane highway more accustomed to harried commuters, trucks and slow-moving farm equipment.
A rowdy bunch of parents, staff and pupils met Compton on the front steps of the red-brick school with noisemakers, hand-painted signs and a glittery gold paper crown bedecked with red and gold sparkly ribbon that they plopped on her head.
In a manner reminiscent of the red-carpet arrivals at the Academy Awards, Compton mugged for the crowd, blowing kisses and posing in front of the limousine as those gathered on the steps screamed and cheered their approval.
Ann Horner wiped tears as she watched her friend and colleague begin her last last day of school.
"We're all really happy for her because she's a super example of a model teacher, but we're going to really miss her," said Horner, Mount Airy Elementary's guidance counselor of 11 years. "It's an extra-special last day because she's been counting down all year. On the first day of school, she said it was her last first day. Then it was her last Halloween party. It's been the last everything this year."
With the anticipation of summer vacation and the relief of finishing another exhausting school year, the last day of school is always exciting for students and staff alike. But the very last last day for retiring teachers holds special meaning.
Forty-four Carroll teachers will retire this year. Across the state, school districts will need to hire about 8,000 teachers for the next school year, mostly because of retirements, state education officials say.
Carroll was the first Baltimore-area district to let out for the summer. Harford County schools finish classes today while Anne Arundel County wraps up Monday, Howard County on Tuesday, Baltimore County on June 14 and Baltimore City on June 17.
A self-described "old-maid school teacher," Compton likes to joke that she has more than 800 children -- but has never married. She has come close three times and quips, "Now, maybe I'll have time."
She anticipates she will also have time to read books for fun, garden and quilt -- "I'm a Martha Stewart wannabe," she said.
Wowed into wanting to be a schoolteacher when her sixth-grade teacher appointed her the kindergarten crossing guard, Compton began teaching at Mount Airy Elementary on Nov. 1, 1971 -- two days after graduating in three years from Frostburg State College.
She never left.
In her 31 years at the neighborhood school, Compton taught in seven different rooms, worked for six principals and saw five superintendents come and go. She has taught the children of former pupils -- "That's been fun," she says, "but the parent conferences are strange" -- and has seen Mount Airy Elementary evolve from a farming community into a bona fide suburban school that has no more than five farm kids in any given year.
Photocopiers have replaced ditto machines. Computers have become a part of daily classroom life. And the curriculum has changed so much that kindergarten now mirrors what used to be first grade and her first-grade classes resemble the second- and third-grade lessons of her earliest teaching years.
But first grade remains the place where 6- and 7-year-olds open their first locker, get their first desk and experience their first lunch in a cafeteria. It might be the first time they've said good-bye to their parents for an entire day. For some, first grade is the year they learn to read.
And it is still an age when almost nothing tops a great first-grade teacher -- as evidenced by the parade of pint-sized pupils coming into Compton's room yesterday morning to bring gifts, show off handmade cards and collect one last hug.
Take Richard Gray. The 7-year-old was bouncing around the room, snapping open and shut a small velvet jewelry box containing gold hoop earrings.
"Look what I got Miss Compton. Look what I got Miss Compton. Look at my present for Miss Compton," he chanted. "It was 20 dollars."
He plunked the box back into a flowered gift bag and bounded over to the corner table where Miss Compton, sparkling crown and all, was holding court.
"Look at my present, Miss Compton," Richard said. "I spent all my money on you. It was 26 dollars."
Compton oohed and aahed. "Oh, Richard, you make me feel so special," she said. "Thank you."
"Do you think they're real gold? Is this real gold?" he asked. Assured it was, Richard added, "Great. Because I spent all my money on you. No wonder they were 26 dollars."
By the time the morning announcements had started, Compton had collected one retirement trophy, several stuffed squirrels (in honor of the squirrels she feeds on her home's front porch), a photo album, a gardening book, a packet of Sweet Tarts, a box of Miracle Gro, gardening gloves, a basket of cut flowers, a potted plant with purple flowers, a charm bracelet, floral-patterned luggage, a one-serving strawberry pie and a multiple-serving butternut pound cake.
And don't forget Richard's real gold earrings.
"I got them because she's my bestest teacher," he explained. "She really means a lot to me because she helped me out with words and I appreciate her and wanted to thank her for all the things she did for me. So I spent all my money on her. Forty-six dollars."
With that, he spun around and resumed his place at Compton's elbow, so as not to miss a single moment of his last day with his "bestest" teacher.