WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO FO OUR SUMMER VACATION

This summer vacation is going to last a lot longer than past vacations for Vernon Huck, Mary Hitt and Nick Leist. Huck, principal of Jackson High School, Hitt, librarian at Orchard Elementary and Leist, JHS Band Director, decided earlier this year to retire at the end of the school year in May.

Huck and Leist have been bombarded with parting gifts and well wishes since their decision to retire was made early in the school year. Hitt just recently announced her retirement and is just now beginning to receive well wishes and parting gifts.

Vernon Huck

Huck is retiring after 32 years in the field of education. He has spent the last 12 years as the principal at Jackson High School. Huck also spent 17 years at Ste. Genevieve, one year at Fredericktown and two years at Valley High School.

"I'm going to miss the kids and the daily communication with a large number of people," Huck said.

"I'm not going to miss discipline problems, early calls on substitute teaching and phone calls in the middle of the night from the police telling me doors and windows are open at the school," he added.

He plans to spend more time with his family and he also plans to hunt, fish, golf and do more taxidermy work in his retirement.

The growth of Jackson High School from three buildings when Huck arrived to seven buildings now is what stands out the most in Huck's mind when he looks back on his 32 years.

Huck said he is so busy that he can't even begin to think about his upcoming retirement in a little under three weeks.

"There's no slack time," he said of this time of year with graduation coming up, the new building, enrollment numbers to work with and the many other duties of a principal at this time of year.

After announcing his retirement in October he's found that the retirement is more than he expected.

"My retirement has been drug out from October on, I just want it to happen," he said.

He said he thinks about retirement on a good day only once, but on bad days the thought crosses his mind hourly.

Rick McClard will replace Huck as principal at the school.

Mary Hitt

When Mary Hitt came to Jackson R-2 School District in 1972, she had to start up a library from scratch. She was the first librarian in the district. Since then the district has hired three more librarians.

She announced her retirement on April 14. She will miss the teacher associations, books and certainly the children. She won't miss shelving the books.

For 18 years she had to travel from school to school. Her proudest moment was eight years ago when a new big library was placed in Orchard Elementary. She developed it and had classes that made the library attractive to the kids.

Her plans for retirement are to spend more time with her grandchildren. She has grandchildren in Cape Girardeau and her other grandchildren will return from a mission with her daughter and son-in-law in Africa next January.

She's looking forward to staying active in her church, yard work, traveling, sewing, reading and whatever else she can squeeze into her retirement.

Hitt said the biggest change she has seen over the past 26 years has been the ongoing transformation to an automated library.

A replacement hasn't been named for Hitt, yet.

Nick Leist

Last but not least of the retirees, or maybe he is Leist of the retirees is JHS band director Nick Leist.

"It's been a good run," Leist said of his 36 years in music education.

He spent the last 30 years at Jackson. Leist also spent one year at Advance, two years at Hayti and three years at Caruthersville.

"I've had such a unique opportunity to be able to put an instrument in a child's hands and show them how to pucker up and watch as that child's music ability grows over five years from beginner to best in the state," Leist said.

He said he will miss the students most of all, but he will miss the association with the staff. He won't miss all the hassles that occur.

"I will enjoy the opportunity to slow down my lifestyle," he said.

He plans to spend more time with his grandchildren and he's looking forward to trout fishing on a weekday when the anglers aren't shoulder to shoulder.

He will remember the accomplishments of the students.

"It's amazing what high school students can do," he said.

Leist hasn't had anytime to prepare for his upcoming trout fishing excursions because this is a very busy time of year for him.

"Every time I sit down (to work on a trout fly) the phone rings."

"I figure I'll know it's time for my retirement when I show up here at the school and there is no one else here."

Besides his normal duties as a band director, he is also trying to show his replacement, Pat Schwent, what to expect from the job.

He was surprised most that after he announced his retirement that he started to second guess himself, but lately he has decided that yes he has been doing the right things over the years.

"The kids tell me I'm a bit more relaxed these days, too."