This year sees the retirement of two long-time faculty members. Special education teacher assistant, Karen Hargrove, officially retired in December, and Pat Maher, who has dedicated 30 years to District 202, is also set to retire at the end of this school year.
Maher started her career as a campus monitor, but she explored many other positions in District 202: Plainfield North attendance secretary, and Plainfield Central as a student service secretary and campus monitor. Although Maher spent some time at Plainfield North, she found her home at Central.
“I will definitely miss the friends I’ve made here,” Maher said.
Maher and her friends participated in many fun traditions, including faculty member of the month, which is meant to honor the month’s nominee through the wearing of the mascot head, but some found it embarrassing.
“I always said I would never wear the wildcat head, but after a faculty member nominated me, I had to put it on,” Maher said.
Not only Maher feels this strongly about those she’s met throughout her career, but also her friend Val Zawistowski, who works in the attendance office.
“I will personally miss her, the comradery, all the laughs over the years. She’s been a good friend,” Zawistowski said.
Similar to Maher, Hargrove gained her fair share of friends during her 20 years as a teaching assistant, two of those individuals she had known for years prior, meeting them during her time as a social studies teacher.
“A good memory was when I learned two of my former 8th grade social studies students from Manhattan, IL were joining me at PCHS as teachers,” Hargrove said. “I enjoyed welcoming both Mr. Nugent and Mr. Wilhelmi as coworkers.”
In addition to Nugent and Wilhelmi, Hargrove had become fairly close with librarian Machelle Green. Hargrove even influenced Green’s monthly routine.
“During finals we would catch up, then she convinced me to start coloring my hair; I’ve been doing it for ten years now,” Green said.
Principal Chris Chlebek worked closely with both Hargrove and Maher throughout their tenure. With both of them retiring, he reflects on what will be missed without these District 202 veterans.
“We will miss their experience as a whole, between the two of them we’ve lost 40 plus years of experience, both possessing institutional knowledge,” Chlebek said. ”I know it won’t be better for a while; they were such an asset to our building, they will undoubtedly be missed.”