Longtime Swanson teacher retires

PALMER — The bird lady has flown the coop.

For the first time in nearly three decades, students at Swanson Elementary School aren’t learning from longtime teacher Darlene Zehm. Twice voted the Mat-Su’s Teacher of the Year by Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman readers, Zehm made a career out of molding young minds, primarily second-graders, and shared her love of birds with students.

Now, she’s fielding an often-repeated question from those students and parents — where are you?

On the eve of her 30th year teaching at Swanson, Zehm was placed on paid administrative leave after challenging a decision by principal Mary Kate Mayer to move the longtime teacher to first grade. Zehm had taught second grade for many years and had seniority on most of the teachers at the school, but her main objection was to the process used: Her name was drawn out of a bowl.

“I had my classroom all ready to teach second grade,” she said. “This would’ve been my 30th year at Swanson and my 34th overall teaching. This year, there were too many second-grade teachers and a new one who wanted to come up from kindergarten. Instead of choosing by seniority, like has happened in the past, (the principal) put all the names in a (bowl).”

Not only was her classroom all ready for second-grade students, over the years she said she’s spent an estimated $40,000 of her own money on educational materials she uses in her classroom throughout the year. In fact, it takes up three storage sheds at her home.

When Zehm complained and brought the teacher’s union into the mix, she said she was told the decision had been made prior to the drawing to move her to first grade.

“So why do a drawing in the first place?” Zehm said.

Finally, on Oct. 3, the longtime Valley educator decided to take retirement rather than fight the school through the union’s grievance process. It’s a decision Zehm said she’s conflicted about, because she loves teaching and for the last 20 years, her students’ reading scores have been the highest at the school. Last year, 47 percent of her students could read at or above proficiency at the beginning of the school year, and 88.8 percent by the end of the year.

“I was pretty upset about the whole thing,” she said. “Teaching was my life. I went ahead and resigned because it was unethical and unprofessional the way that they (assigned the first-grade classroom).”

That’s an opinion supported by the Mat-Su Education Association, said president Jill Showman. Although she can’t speak about specific grievances, she said assigning teaching positions by a random drawing “is not typically how things are done.”

The contract the union has with the Mat-Su Borough School District is specific that school principals have discretion to assign staff, Showman said. Things like seniority and preparation should be taken into consideration, but aren’t binding.

Standard operating procedure would be for the teacher to go forward and teach where assigned while the grievance process runs its course, she said.

Drawing names at random “is not necessarily the norm, but I know that there are different methods at different schools,” Showman said. “We just want to make sure it’s equitable. When an employee is reassigned to another classroom, whether it be for scheduling or bubbles of enrollment, the employee does need to take that assignment.”

Zehm said she isn’t going public about her dispute with Swanson and her sudden retirement out of spite.

“I enjoyed teaching in the Mat-Su Valley for 29 years,” she said. “I just want it straightforward about what went on and why I decided to leave. Overall, though, I guess I do really feel cheated by the school, very much so. But I had the best kids and the best parents and I would never give that up. In the long run, I wasn’t teaching for that principal, I wasn’t teaching for the school, I wasn’t teaching for the Mat-Su Borough School District, I was teaching for those kids, and I loved every minute of it.”

From the school district’s perspective, losing an experienced teacher like Zehm is a shame, said Superintendent Deena Paramo, who also was a principal for 15 years. While Paramo said she isn’t aware of the specifics of Zehm’s case, she said shesupports the autonomy of principals to make assignments for their schools.

“I know it’s hard, though, when you’ve been doing something for a long time,” she said. “When I’m challenged with something new, I find value in doing that. In a perfect world, you’d want everybody perfectly happy with what they want.”

While Paramo said she never made assignments by drawing names when she was a principal, sometimes chance can enter into a decision.

“When all things are equal, sometimes you could do that,” she said. “The union itself does that when all things are equal (in a situation). Principals do set up their teams and what should be priority is the students. The students’ needs come before the adult needs.”

Knowing about Zehm’s success with reading achievement, Paramo said first grade seems like a good place for her.

“Knowing that reading is most important early — as soon as first grade starts — I want that teacher there, and I bet she has that to offer,” Paramo said. “I would put my best reading teachers where they’re needed most, and that’s at first grade.”

While Zehm decided to retire as a teacher from the MSBSD, she said she can’t quit cold turkey. She’s now volunteering to teach art and is looking forward to a celebration of her teaching career this weekend.

From 5 to 8 p.m., Saturday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wasilla, all of Zehm’s former students and parents are invited to what Zehm calls a “celebration of teaching.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.