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 with the district.
On Tuesday, we heard from Lekanoff. Today, we hear from Trish Adams, who was an elementary school aide for 17 years.
TRANSCRIPT:
TRISH ADAMS: I actually started when Aaron was in kindergarten for a couple of years, part time. And then I went away and then came back when he was I think in the fifth grade. And I've been there ever since. I was an aide the whole time I was there. I worked for different teachers, a lot of them came and went. But I really loved working there. When I first came to the island in 1986, I was on boats. And that's where I met my husband. And I got off the boat and went to work for UniSea. I used to manage the UniSea and the Grand Aleutian and stuff. And then when I had Aaron, I couldn't go back to work, I had to stay home. And then when he went to kindergarten, I started at the school. And I worked for a couple of years, and then I’d give it up, went to the post office and then I went back to the school permanently when he was in the fifth grade. Because it was the perfect way to work. I mean, you got off every day, same time your child did, and you didn't have to worry about babysitters or what he was doing. So it was a great place to work. Really, I loved working with kids. I mean, they come up with the best stuff every single day. I mean, my husband, when I would come home, he'd go, "What was the quote of the day?" You know, and I'd always have something, some story to tell him.
CARLOS TAYAG: Do you remember any of the quotes from kids?
ADAMS: Oh, one of my favorite things is, I had a kid that wrote me a note one time, and it said on there, "Dear Miss Trish, thank you for helping me learn my spelling words this week. Because if I didn't learn my spelling words, I'd be dumb as dirt. And everybody knows that you don't want to be as dumb as dirt. But now I am like the grass growing towards the sun. And everybody knows that grass is smarter than dirt." That's my favorite thing. I have a whole box full of every note that every kid ever wrote to me.
TAYAG: What are you gonna miss about your time at the school?
ADAMS: Mostly the kids, you know, they're just wonderful. I got to where every year, I had a reading group. It was one of the good things about being an aide and not a teacher is that I could do anything that I wanted. I would ask them what they wanted to learn about and we would go find whatever books they wanted to learn about, and that's what we would do. And we would study them for a week and we do experiments or whatever. You know, like I said, I left it up to them what they wanted to learn about. And one year, I mean, we made sundials and potato clocks, and you know, everything like that. I was on the playground every year for the last 15 years. I was the lunch monitor out there for an hour every day. And I loved it. I didn't want to give it away to anybody else. You know, it was just a time where you got to see all the kids. I mean, because every year I wasn't with all the kids. You know, some years I was with one grade, and another year I was with another. But during lunchtime, I got to see every single one of them.
TAYAG: Did you join in in any of their games?
ADAMS: Oh, absolutely!
TAYAG: What's your favorite playground game?
ADAMS: Probably follow the leader. You grab one by the hand and then just start walking and the next thing you know, they're all in the line going and you can really tie them up.
TAYAG: Do you ever go up into the big toy in the tubes?
ADAMS: Oh, yeah, to slide down the slide.
TAYAG: That's like a good way to preserve your youth.
ADAMS:I used to jump rope and that you know, you get older and things start to fall apart. I'd say the last few years mostly I just watched them.
TAYAG: Were you a lunch eater?
ADAMS: For the last few years, I brought my lunch to school every day. But you know, when they bring the pizza out there, whether you had your lunch or not, you're still going to eat a piece. Their homemade pizzas is the best.
TAYAG: Would you say that's your favorite school lunch?
ADAMS: Oh, absolutely. That homemade bread they make. Oh, it's wonderful.
TAYAG: Is there anything that you would want to say or talk about? Farewell message? An update with your future?
ADAMS: Well, we're going out on the 15th of July. And the funny thing is, I landed on this island on the 15th of July in 1986. And we're going out on the ferry on the 15th of July. So it'll be 37 years to the day that I leave. We're going to Willow, Alaska. We have a home there.
TAYAG: What are you looking forward to in your retirement?
ADAMS: Just the fact that you can get up and go fishing every single day when the weather's nice. Retirement has already been nice. We've been fishing every time the sun shines.
TAYAG: Is there anything else you are looking forward to?
ADAMS: Just the freedom to go and do like we want. We're not big travelers, but we definitely want to travel the state of Alaska. We have a motor home, we'll go everywhere. All the different festivals and things like that they have.
TAYAG: like the music festivals?
ADAMS: Yeah, music festivals. I mean, there's one in Talkeetna called the Moose Drop festival. We're gonna go check them all out.
TAYAG: And get Aaron to play?
ADAMS: Oh, yeah, he would!
You know, if it hadn't been for him, we would have probably left this island. You know, when we had him, we decided "No, we know that this is a good school," and we wanted him to go to school here. And it was a wonderful place to raise him. You know, I have nothing bad to say about this place. I mean, it's just been a wonderful place. I mean, when he was young, every day after school, we would go to the beach, or go fishing, and there was always something to do. I never had any problem with not having something to do here. That's the truth. Like I said, it's a wonderful place to raise your child.
