At the end of this school year, we’ll be saying farewell to a few of our finest teachers, representing 113 years of teaching experience! As you can imagine, this doesn't happen very often. Please consider saying your goodbye to these fine teachers at the annual MLK Ice Cream Social on June 1 from 6 - 8 PM.
In addition, if you'd like to make a contribution towards farewell gifts, please contact Mylinda Balint (jrb-myn at comcast.net) or Laurie Barnett (lcbarn at comcast.net).
Teachers leaving MLK at the end of the year:
• Our extraordinary media specialist, Marge Rutila. Mrs. Rutila is retiring and has been a dedicated teacher in Ann Arbor Public Schools for 37 years. She worked at Newport, Bader, Scarlett, Clague and Martin Luther King, spending 33 years at MLK—and the school has only been open for 37 years. In other words, Mrs. Rutila IS the MLK school media center. She has developed a space that is the hub of school activity and a model for other schools.
• One-half of the fantastic 5th grade team, Judy Pietila. Ms. Pietila is retiring and has been teaching for 32 years, spending 27 years in the Ann Arbor Public Schools with 22 of those years at MLK. She also spent two years at Bryant, one year at Eberwhite, and two years as a Language Arts Consultant at Lawton and Abbot. Ms. Pietila’s teaching in language arts and social studies in fifth grade have been fantastic.
• One of our dynamo 3rd grade teachers, Briita Hall. Mrs. Hall is retiring and has been a dedicated teacher in the Ann Arbor Public Schools since 1970 as a teacher with two years at Northside, one year at Clinton II (before it was named Bryant), 21 years at Pittsfield, and 12 years at MLK. Mrs. Hall’s thoughtful approach to teaching won’t soon be forgotten.
• Another dedicated and talented 5th grade teacher, Michelle Oliphant. Ms. Oliphant is taking a one-year leave of absence from the Ann Arbor Public Schools and will be teaching in London, England. She has spent 7 years at MLK after student teaching with Joyce Griffiths. We’ll hope to see her again somewhere down the road.
Please join me in saying farewell to these teachers at the MLK Ice Cream Social on Friday, June 1. I sincerely wish that we had more time with each of these dedicated, intelligent, caring teachers because of the excellence they represent. I’ll hope to see you Friday!
