The Unalaska City School District saw significant staff turnover this year, including the retirement of Sharon O’Malley, Karie Wilson, Linda Lekanoff, Trish Adams, Steven Gregory and Jim Wilson.
KUCB's Carlos Tayag sat down with them to reflect on their time in the district.
On Wednesday, we heard from O’Malley, who retired after nearly three decades with UCSD. Today, we hear from Karie Wilson, who was the school secretary at Eagle's View Elementary Achigaalux̂ for 16 years.
TRANSCRIPT:
KARIE WILSON: I’m Karie Wilson, I've worked as the secretary at the elementary school since 2007. So 16 years. I am gonna miss the kids a lot. I'm gonna miss being Miss Karie and having kids give me hugs at the grocery store and seeing parents that I know at the store and at the post office, and I'm gonna miss that. And then Unalaska, I'm gonna miss the beauty of it, berry picking, driving the S curves looking for whales. This is such a cool place. Yeah, it feels like it's come full circle. We've loved it here. And I think it's a great place to raise kids. I've heard people call Unalaska, “Unicorn Ville,” and “Mayberry” and all kinds of things because it feels like simple life here. You know?
That's been so cool seeing kids from little teeny tykes and seeing them come into their own and getting their own personality and attitude, and then getting into high school and getting into clubs or sports or jobs. I've watched my kids grow up, but I watched a ton of other kids grow up too. My kids learned to ride bikes here. And, you know, they went all the way from preschool through high school here. And, you know, we had lots of memories out on the boat. It is just, this is a very cool place to make memories for sure. And I love driving down the road and waving to your neighbors.
CARLOS TAYAG: What are you looking forward to?
WILSON: Traveling. Getting to see friends and family we haven't seen in a long time. Being there for special dates, anniversaries, things that we haven't been able to be there for: birthdays and anniversaries and graduations and babies and stuff we haven't always been there for. We've been there for some. And friends we haven't seen for a very long time.
TAYAG: Do you have a favorite memory or experience?
WILSON: Um, boy, I have lots of memories, because we've been here so long.
TAYAG: It can be any of them. It doesn’t have to be one.
WILSON: But the first one that popped in my brain was the kids winning the state championship for the basketball team, the boys basketball team and Trevor was on the team. But just seeing all the community members come together. When we were in there in Anchorage, there were, you know, past students and past Unalaska residents and local folks. It just was such a cool vibe and such a good group of people all cheering the kids on and, and then when they got home, the people who couldn't go, were all here. Well, not all of them, but a huge group of them were at the airport with signs and banners. And you know, it was just cool. Unalaska really comes together, whether it's good times or bad times, and it's neat how Unalaska just rallies around each other no matter what. So I think that's one of my best memories from here.
TAYAG: Were you a lunch eater at the school or did you go home for lunch?
WILSON: Usually I went home for lunch, because I would go let my dog out. But sometimes I would get lucky and there'd be leftovers that would be brought to the teachers lounge. I was always a fan of the baked cheese sandwich. Even if it was just the crust that the kids don't eat, I would eat that. Now, I don't know what the ladies do here but it was ooey, gooey cheese. And we'd always get parents coming in to buy lunch and eat with their kids on baked cheese sandwich day and I don't know, chicken nuggets pizza, that's all good too, but baked cheese sandwich, that was famous.
TAYAG: Is there anything else you want to say?
WILSON: If I can hold it together, there's a quote from a song that I keep listening to, and it's, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” And that's where I feel like we are. It's sad, but this is just an end to this chapter, and then we'll start something new and it'll be exciting. But a lot of happy tears. It's a hard place to leave.
