HHS Says Farewell To Valued Staff Members

Peter Lange:

Photography teacher Peter Lange, or Pete as his students call him, is retiring after many years in the darkrooms. He first came to Hanover High as a student in 1968, and insists that the school “hasn’t changed a nit,” offering for evidence that “Bill Murphy and Ford Daley are still here.” He does however admit: “the food has gotten a lot better.”

Pete says he “like[s] the students” and “will miss getting paid” but  “will not miss going to work with migraine[s].” Next year he looks forward to “finally getting to do some of [his] own art projects without so many distractions” and completing his house.

Hanover High School will miss Pete’s quite presence and dry humor in the photo room.

 

Greta Mills:

Calculus and Advanced Math teacher and HHS Math Team coach Gretta Mills is moving to Florida with her husband next year. She will be teaching at Oxbridge Academy, a school focusing on project based learning and located on the Palm Beaches. She will miss Hanover’s “staff (especially those in the math department), students, arranging for the a cappella groups, working with the math team, the Sudoku club, and serving on council.” She will not however miss “snow, winter, half days, and teaching in a room whose early fall [and] late spring temperatures reach the nineties.” She is “looking forward to a winter with no snow for the first time in [her] life.”

Over her twelve-year career at Hanover, Ms. Mills has seen the school change significantly.  “I was here before the renovation, so the facility change is the biggest physical change,” she comments. “It’s interesting, too, how technology and the facility have changed the way we teach and interact. I think most of the changes are positive. But in the old building, there was much more small-group interaction – the cafeteria was tiny, there was no atrium, the senior class had a small space reserved for them. The small spaces lent themselves well to some great conversations. The larger spaces in the renovated building, combined with technology, have led to a really different vibe in the common areas, and spaces like the MRC have seen changes in who visits, and why.”

She also adds “I’ve been at Hanover since the fall of 2000, and it has been the best place to work, to teach, and to grow. I am definitely not the teacher I was when I arrived, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to challenge myself while working to challenge my students. It’s been a great 12 years!”

Ms. Mills will definitely be missed next year, but her new students in Florida are in for a treat.

 

Paul Barker:

Paul Barker, or Señor Barker as his Spanish students call him, is retiring this year. His plans for next year are not nailed down yet, but he does plan to be  “Travel[ing], reading, relaxing, hiking, resuming running, [and] making music.” He will miss “interacting every day with students and colleagues.” However, he will not miss “smart phone addicts, first period tardiness, drills, [and] unproductive meetings.”

Señor Barker has been at Hanover High School through the renovation, which he says is the biggest change he has seen in the school. For him, “Standouts are the new gym, the auditorium, the atrium, the media center, the cafe, the turf field, and improved technology in our classrooms.” His favorite things about Hanover are “all [his] friends [especially] in the Foreign Language Department, the overall friendly and courteous atmosphere that exists in our school, [and] making music in the Acoustic Cafe.”

Señor Barker’s presence will be missed in the Spanish department, and we wish him a happy, relaxing retirement.

 

Don Buck:

Latin teacher Don Buck is retiring this year and will be  “resuming serious guitar playing” and “auditing classics classes at Dartmouth” next year. Mr. Buck will miss “kids’ sense of humor” and says his other favorite things about Hanover are students’ “genuine interest in learning; or, if they don’t love a certain subject, their interest in learning how to work accurately.” He will not, however, miss “increasing requirements from ‘educationologists’ (professional administrators) that teachers spend time on non-classroom busywork.”

Mr. Buck also praised the changes that came about through the 2006 renovations, remarking that the increased “space space created room in which kids and teachers were less frustrated by physical conditions and could concentrate on teaching and learning.”

Mr. Buck will be missed next year, but we hope he still see him around town between his Dartmouth classes.

 

Jane Woods:

Choral director and director of Footnotes, one of HHS’s preforming ensembles, Jane Woods will be retiring this year after twenty-three years of teaching at Hanover. She will miss “the daily enjoyment of the sound of young voices combining into beautiful music [and] sharing very special musical experiences and performances with HHS singers and instrumentalists.” Her favorite things about Hanover have been the “enthusiastic, sincere, and talented students, wonderful colleagues, and [that it is] a place where learning never stops and creativity and excellence are valued.” The only thing will not miss is the “often hectic schedule.”

Next year Ms. Woods plans on using her time to “travel [and] visit family.” Over her twenty-three years at Hanover she has witnessed the renovations which brought a “nice expanded music area,” over one hundred and fifty more students in the school as a whole, the expansion of the music department, and notices that “the college process seems much more intense.”

Ms. Woods will be greatly missed by her Chorus and Footnotes students and the music department as a whole. After nearly a quarter of a century of teaching at Hanover, she has become a symbol of the music department as a whole, and we wish her a relaxing retirement and happy travels next year.

 

Nancy Kress:

Math teacher Nancy Kress will be moving on to teach at Lebanon High School next year.  She will miss “the students and staff members I’ve worked with in the last fourteen years.” Her favorite thing about HHS has been her “Algebra 2 classes for the past two years.” She praises her students for “hav[ing] endured experimental lesson plans with patience, and risen to the challenge of difficult work without complaint and with enthusiasm, creativity and perseverance,” and adds that she is “sad that [she] will not be here to see them continue to grow and finish high school.” However, “situations in which students find it difficult to recognize their own greatest skills and talents in the context of striving to do more, take more honors classes, and get admitted to the most competitive colleges” is something she will not miss.

Over her fourteen years at Hanover, Ms. Kress has seen students “much more appreciative of the work teachers do on their behalf.” Hanover High School will miss Ms. Kress next year; Lebanon math students are gaining a great teacher.

Ms. Kress’s final message to Hanover students is this:

“The right future path for you is the one where you will find things you love to do and where you will be appreciated for the contribution you will make.  The right college might recognize how wonderful you are before you even know that it is the right place for you.  Seize that opportunity.”

 

Kevin Lavigne:

Chemistry, CAPPS, and Evolution and Genetics teacher Kevin Lavigne will be taking a two year leave of absence beginning next year. He will be teaching in Tianjin, China, the fourth largest city in China, at an international school. He is excited for this opportunity and to experience life in a city with a population of 13 million. Mr. Lavigne will be returning to Hanover in the fall of 2015, and we wish him the best while he is teaching in China.

 

John Galton:

English teacher Mr. Galton, famous for teaching Russian Literature, arguable the most challenging English course at Hanover High School, is retiring this year. He will “miss the sharing of thoughts and challenging of ideas” in his classroom; however, he says he will not miss “the pressure,” as “grading papers has begun to make [him] shudder.”

Mr. Galton’s favorite things about Hanover have been the students and when “years ago and for several years in a row, on a day set aside to celebrate Earth Day, several of us cycled to Lyme and back.”  “Now, that was edifying,” he adds.

His plans for next year are “many and varied and glorious and oh, there are also the grandchildren!” And as far as changes in school go, he says there have none “since Socrates wrapped his toga tighter and drank.”

Mr. Galton will be greatly missed next year, and we wish him the best in his many glorious plans.

 

Deanna Stygles:

Special Education teacher Deanna Stygles will only be returning to HHS occasionally as a substitute next year. She will be using her extra time to “teach native cultural ways” through the Native American group she is a part of while continuing her research on Native American culture. Her favorite things about Hanover are “the students and staff.” “I have worked for other school districts over the years and none compare to this one,” she adds. She will miss learning from her students as much as they learn from her and how they “keep [her] feeling young and involved in life.”

In regard to changes she has seen at the school, she says: ”Changes occur all the time and most of them have been for the good of the school.”

We wish Ms. Stygles a wonderful next year continuing her work with Native American studies and hope to see her around the school when she is filling in.