DISD Employees To Be Recognized

9 May 2001

Combined Employees Have Served 8,589 Years in the Dallas Independent School District

A reception honoring Dallas Independent School District retiring employees will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10, at the Infomart, 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway. General Superintendent Mike Moses will bring greetings to the retiring employees and their families.

Combined these 340 employees have contributed 8,589 years of service to the Dallas schools. In particular, retiring teachers alone have contributed 4,993 years dedicated to providing an education to the children of Dallas.

One of the district's longest serving educators is Gertrude Robertson, who has been a teacher for 51 years. Her teaching career, although long, has been limited to only two schools, K. B. Polk Elementary and Rusk Middle School, where she has been a Language Arts teacher for the past 31 years.

Raised in a farm near the Texas/Louisiana border by a father who completed only a second grade education and a mother who went up to seventh grade, to her getting an education was a privilege. At Rusk, she feels she has made, and continues to make, a difference. Throughout the years she has become involved with community, something that she says has helped bring continuity to her classroom. "I know my students' background. I know their parents. I know what their needs are," Mrs. Robertson says. And she has made their lives part of hers.

Years ago two of her students lost their mother and she reached out to help by taking them under her wing. "I became a teacher when the teacher's day didn't end when the school bell rang. I raised those two girls and made sure they had an education. I'm their Mama."

Robertson hates to think of the idea of having to leave the classroom, "especially when you feel you can still make a difference with the boys and girls in this neighborhood," she says. "This is all I have been all my life. I don't know of anything else I would like to do better. If I have a gift in this world, that's teaching."

Another of the district's long serving employees is Eula Holyfield, a cafeteria manager at Stonewall Jackson Elementary School. Mrs. Holyfield will retire this year after 39 years of service and no absences. Thirty-nine years of service without a single absence in her personnel file is an accomplishment in itself for any employee. But, what sets Mrs. Holyfield apart from the rest is the fact that she has been able to do this without owning a car—facing rain, heat and winter storms on her daily journey to work. Mrs. Holyfield's career in the Dallas Independent School District Food and Child Nutrition Services Department began at Sam Houston Elementary School where she was employed as a dishwasher. She later worked as a cook and moved up the ranks to cafeteria manager, her current position.

Mrs. Holyfield says she will miss being around the school children and co-workers of so many years, but that it is time to move on. "I think it is time to do something else," she says. "I'm not the type to sit at home and do nothing." Upon retirement, Holyfield plans to travel to Memphis, California and Alabama.

Among the retirees are six principals including Jan Chapman-Green and Margaret Mary Poulos, who are retiring after 26 years of service; Gloria H. Lett is retiring after 27 years of service; Oneida Bradford, after 31 years of service; Charles Knox, after 34 years of service; and Jack R. London, after 39 years. Combined, these educators have served the district for more than 180 years.

Other retiring employees with a high number of years are listed :

Dorothy Simpson, Counselor, Umphrey Lee Elementary, 47 years

Barbara A. Cato, Teacher, Herbert Marcus Elementary School, 44 years

Mary Verdun, Teacher, Richard Lagow Elementary, 43 years

Dorothy Jackson, Teacher, Daniel Webster Elementary, 41 years

Rose M. Arnwine, Nurse, J. C. Frazier Elementary, 41 years

(For a complete list of retirees, please call 972-925-3900)