Sidney Schools Honor Retirees

The Sidney Public School system said goodbye to five long time members of the faculty last week with a luncheon honoring their achievements and service to education and the Sidney community.  It was a time for cake, reminiscing, and talk of future plans as the retirees said goodbye to the people they called colleges and the school they called home for many years.

John Ganser, with well over 40 years of service in education, is a long-time history and social studies teacher and coach of the wrestling and track teams.   As head wrestling coach, he instructed four time Nebraska State Champion Derek Robb as well as other standout athletes over the years.  Ganser always had a reputation for getting the most out his students in the classroom and the athletic arena, and will be missed and remembered by generations of Sidney students that benefitted from his teaching and his coaching.

He plans on staying local, and has no set plans except for reconnecting and getting involved with Nebraska football.He also definitely plans on continuing his summer tradition of working as a laborer on a local farm for a few weeks as he does every year to clear the mind from the year's events and to keep his body in peak physical shape.

Steve Hume has spent 46 years as an educator, with the last 19 years teaching at Sidney Middle School.  He started teaching in Johnstown, CO in a kindergarten through fourth grade district.

"I had 456 kids a day-I taught  physical education", he said with a laugh.

Originally from Peetz, he got into education because he wanted to coach.

"I was the head football coach for 17 years back in Colorado", he explained.

He started out in college as a math major then switched to a social sciences major with a math minor, among other disciplines like Driver's Ed and Athletic Training.  He went to school with Steve Antonopulus, the Head Trainer of the Broncos.

After leaving Johnstown, he also taught at Prairie, Merino, and Julesburg, all in Colorado.  Then he landed at Sidney Middle School and has been teaching Social Studies for the last 19 years, behind the familiar podium from where he conducted his classes.

After retiring, Hume has a busy schedule ahead of him, from woodworking projects that he can now devote more time to and traveling to visit his children in various parts of the country.

When asked about the biggest change he has seen in students over the years he said, "You can't handle the kids the same way now as when I started, and that's really society's change. Things we never had to worry about are now more and more common, and it has changed the way teachers deal with students. I've been very fortunate, though, because the kids here in Sidney are very good and well-behaved, and it doesn't take much to keep them motivated and focused."

Pat Welch started on her path in a 28 year education career focused on physical education, but as she moved through college she was inspired by her teachers to get interested in science, so she graduated with a double major in biology and physical education with a health minor.  She did her undergraduate work at Dakota State College, which was a teaching college at the time, and has continuously taken classes in the summer focused on environmental issues, wildlife and range management, and technology.

She started her first year teaching in Madison, Minnesota and met her husband while fulfilling her National Guard obligations, and they moved to the Sidney area when he was transferred.  She then taught in the Potter-Dix school system for eight years, then for the last 20 years she has been in the Sidney school system.

"I started out in the middle school teaching math and physical education and science. I didn't switch over to exclusively science until I moved over to the high school", Welch explained.

"I'm an outdoors person so I really enjoy my environmental science class, and the anatomy and physiology classes, I really enjoy. But the environmental sciences is my passion", she said.

She lives with her husband on a farm about 30 miles outside of Sidney. She plans on continuing her environmental work, focusing on sustainable and natural farming techniques. She's open to moving, but if she can find a suitable position to continue her environmental work, she'll stay in the area. But she definitely plans on taking the time to relax and enjoy time with her husband at a slightly slower pace.

When asked about the changes she's seen in students over the years, she said, "I really think it's technology that's changed the most, meaning the focus on how things are taught. Because the technologies now are very entertainment-focused, the students expect things to be taught to them in an entertaining way, which has made me have to be more creative in the way I teach."

John Glenn has been in the Sidney school system for 23 years and currently acts as the school's IT Administrator. Prior to coming to Sidney, he was with the the Chadron public school system. He received a degree in computer programming from Chadron State College in 1978, and came to teaching by following the non-traditional path, getting his teaching certification was he was 39 years old. He has a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science, and two Masters degrees.

He came to Sidney when he was hired as a computer teacher in the old high school. The changes he oversaw during this time were amazing, starting with large computers that barely had the computing power of a modern calculator to the complex and intuitive networked systems that we are familiar with today.

Glenn commented on the advances in technology, saying "We've totally re-vamped our infrastructure to handle at least one thousand devices on our wifi and routed networks. It has completely changed from when I started and all of these technologies are integral to the student's learning. What was once a luxury and something considered futuristic is now commonplace and absolutely necessary."

After retiring, he plans on traveling to visit his daughters in Texas and Florida. He also plans on warm-weather golfing, eyeing Arizona and points southwest.

Sue Kandel retires after 42 years in education, teaching at Sidney since 2008 as a Speech Instructor. She received her Bachelor's degree at Colorado State and her Masters at Chadron State. Originally from Ohio, she has taught English, German, and Vocal Music.

"It's a scary thing to get up in front of a group of people and speak intelligently", she said when describing the challenges of speech instruction.

She says that the changes over the years haven't been really about the kids, but what they deal with in society.

"Kids themselves, I haven't seen a change. If you speak to them like a human being, they will speak to you like a human being," she said.

After retirement, she plans on traveling and doing more creative things like writing and sewing and other interests that she hadn't the time to pursue during her busy career.

All the retirees have earned their time for themselves, and the Sidney school system will remember and miss them all.