Highland County Public Schools

MONTEREY — It’s always hard to say goodbye to a wonderful teacher, especially one who has dedicated his or her life to teaching.

This past year, Highland County Public Schools had to say goodbye to three longtime staff members who retired at the end of the last school year. Middle school English teacher Melody Moats retired after 38 years; elementary teacher Terri Jamison retired after 22 years; and high school secretary Susan Murray retired after 20 years.

“All three of them are irreplaceable,” said school board chair Kenny Hodges. “The two teachers were at the top of the tier and continued to be growing and invaluable.”

While the school board has hired replacements, Hodges acknowledged the value of the former employees.

“You’ve got maturity, you’ve got growth, you’ve got responsibility,” Hodges said. “We’re extremely proud to have had them and we wish them the best and know they’ll enjoy their retirement.”

Susan Murray

Murray couldn’t stand to stay away entirely and has already been approved as a substitute for the upcoming school year, a throwback to her beginnings at HCPS.

“I started working in guidance with Caroline Sponaugle,” Murray recalled. “In that position, I did just about everything in the school.”

Murray said she would be tapped to fill in as a substitute teacher, work in the cafeteria, and even help with maintenance as needed.

Murray settled into the position of high school secretary, but was involved in many other aspects of daily life at the school.

“I’ve been a jack-of-all-trades,” Murray said. “You do not get bored here.”

Some of Murray’s favorite memories were field trips she attended as a chaperone.

“I was invited a few years ago to go to Nashville with the senior class,” Murray said. “I’ve been invited to go on day trips with all the classes.”

Murray said she especially enjoyed getting to know students and parents.

“Some of the students have made an impact on my life,” Murray said. She said she even received phone calls from former students on her last day of work.

“It’s very rewarding,” Murray said. “I’ve seen a lot of students graduate and then come back to Highland County Public Schools to work, and that’s very rewarding.”

She sometimes sees former students out in the world, and they always ask, “Do you remember me?”

“Yes, I remember you,” she always replies.

Over her career, Murray said changes in administration and technology were the biggest challenges.

“Since I’ve been here, there have been three different principals and they’ve all been great,” Murray said, but added that each had a learning curve. “A couple of them told me I had to train them.”

“Technology is a big one,” Murray added. “There were very few computers here when I started. There were no cell phones.”

Murray said she enjoyed learning new technologies to help the school. “There’s been some that have been very challenging for me, but I’ve struggled through it,” she said.

Now that she is retiring, she plans to spend more time with family and friends.

“I’ve got plans, and they are to spend time with my grandchildren because they are growing up,” she said. “I hope to do some volunteer work with Koressa (Malcolm) because I am a horse person.” Malcolm runs the Elegius Mini Equine Sanctuary in Doe Hill.

“All of my friends are retired, so I’ll spend some time with them, too,” Murray said.

Terri Jamison

Jamison taught for 22 years at Highland Elementary School.

“I started off and taught a couple years in special education,” Jamison said.

She then moved to third grade and finished her career teaching second grade.

She said the students were the best part of her job. “I always loved the kids,” she said. “I always enjoyed when I could see the kids grasping a new concept.

“I also loved working with the people,” she said of her coworkers. “It was like a family.”

Jamison was a stay-at-home mother until her children started kindergarten, and then she began her teaching career. “I think having my kids first helped me get a better understanding of kids,” she said, but noted that adapting to the pace of school was a challenge at the beginning.

“It was figuring out what I could teach in the allotted time,” Jamison said.

Over the years, the demands on teachers increased.

“We are expected to take on more jobs and do more stuff,” Jamison said. In addition to new technology, testing requirements changed frequently, so teachers were lifelong students themselves.

“Education does do that,” Jamison said. “It changes every several years on how they think you should teach.”

Jamison, too, enjoyed field trips. “It brings it to life, and usually there is hands-on stuff that goes with it,” she said.

Former elementary principal Teresa Blum, who died in 2021, was a big help to her over the years, she said. “Ms. Blum made my job easy. If we could just have her back.”

Jamison said she will head to Colorado for a vacation about the time school starts this fall.

“We want to travel more, and I want to spend more time with my four-year-old grandson,” she said. “We like to go to the national parks and tour around.”

While she won’t be in Highland to see students return to school, she has fond memories.

“I enjoyed it,” Jamison said. “I probably will miss it.”

Melody Moats

Moats taught for an impressive 38 years, all in Highland County Public Schools. For more than 20 of those years, she taught fifth grade when the school was in the building that is now The Highland Center. Her classroom was one of those off the side of the gymnasium.

“You sort of got used to teaching to the bouncing of the basketball,” Moats said. “I loved it over there.”

When she started her teaching career, HCPS classes were larger as the county had more children. Back then, each class was responsible for putting on a performance or assembly for the rest of the school.

“My very first year teaching, we did ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’” Moats recalled. “We did this huge extravaganza with lots of parent help and teachers helping.”

Moats had performed in plays herself in high school, and she instilled a love of theatre in many of her students. “I guess it was always a part of my life,” she said.

When she switched from elementary teacher to middle school English teacher, she took over the drama club with a core group of five or six students. “We started doing some plays in my room,” Moats said, and performed them for elementary classes. The drama club continued to grow until it offered two performances a year.

“We had a lot more opportunities with more students involved,” Moats said.

She and the drama club had planned an ambitious performance of “Titanic” in 2020, before the pandemic hit, which put theatre on hold for two years. Moats said she still is not sure how the students planned to pull that one off, as each would have needed to play multiple rolls.

“I jump into these things, and we always somehow make it work,” Moats said.

The pandemic did more than put a damper on play performances — it brought about new technology challenges.

“I had very little computer training in my college education,” Moats said. She learned how to make virtual lessons and keep in touch with her students in those difficult first months.

Technology continued to play a part in teaching, with artificial intelligence available as a tool the past couple years. Moats said she was able to use AI to help with lesson plans and the school purchased some AI programs to help with writing skills.

“We just have to learn how to use it ethically,” she said.

Another challenge over her career were Standards of Learning tests. As a fifth-grade teacher, Moats had to handle several SOLs for students’ final year of elementary school.

“The first years I went to middle school, I had six SOLs to be responsible for,” Moats said. “I could not get away from SOL testing.

“Maybe it helped me be a better teacher,” she mused. “Maybe it helped me see what holes needed to be filled in.”

Filling those educational holes was a big part of her job. “I loved helping kids be successful,” Moats said.

“I will not miss the first day of worrying about SOLs,” she said. But there is plenty she will miss.

“I really enjoyed going to D.C. with the eighth grade on their field trip,” Moats said.

She also liked the faculty vs. sixth grade softball games at the end of the year. “We always won.”

From her time in elementary school, Moats recalled one large project for which she enlisted the help of her husband, Jerry Moats.

“I love building electrical cities,” she said. The class created buildings out of plywood and Jerry Moats helped with the electronics. “We made circuits in each of the buildings to turn them off and on.”

Moats had not planned to retire for another year but, “Life got so busy and I wanted to help out my family,” she said, so she began to consider retiring at the end of the 2023-24 school year. “I couldn’t unthink it once I thought it. I guess this was just my reason to be with family more.”

So far this summer, she has helped her relatives, worked in her garden, and completed some house tasks she and her husband had been putting off.

“I really don’t want to do anything except what I want to do,” Moats said. She plans to wait a year and then she might decide to be a substitute or get involved in youth activities in the community.

Moats’ Monterey home backs up to the back of the school, so she will see students all the time. She knows she will miss parts of her old life.

“I’m going to really miss reading ‘Outsiders’ with eighth grade this year,” Moats said.