BonnerSprings.com

Elaine Berg

Larry Berg

James Hanson

In 43 years of being involved in education, one of Larry Berg’s proudest moments happened on some school buses.

It was 1977 and the Oskaloosa High School Band and Choir, of which he was the conductor, had received 24 1-ratings in the Kansas Music Educators Association state music contest.

“My most favorite part of that whole day was to get on the buses and hand out the medals. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the joy those kids had,” Berg said. “All the things I did to get through school were paid for in that moment.”

Berg, who is the YouthFriends and business partnerships coordinator for USD 204, is one of three educators in the district retiring this year — the other two retirees being his wife, Elaine Berg, and assistant principal for Bonner Springs High School James Hanson. This isn’t Larry Berg’s first time going through retirement, however. He retired from teaching in 1998 and, that same year, got involved with YouthFriends. He said he believed it was time to retire for the last time because, simply enough, it was just time.

“I’ve reached the age that it’s a reasonable thing to do, and I feel I’ve reached the age where I’m ready to move on to the next part of my life; do something a little different,” Larry Berg said.

That something different will involve at least one pursuit he said he hadn’t had a lot of time to take part in during his lifetime: traveling.

“I’ve never been to a lot of places, and I’d like to go to those places,” he said.

One trip Larry Berg already has planned is to go to the eastern part of the United States in October, where he will rent a car in Boston and drive to Main “to enjoy the fall colors of that portion of the country,” as he said.

A professional musician in several bands and orchestras, Larry Berg said he is also relishing the idea of having the time to focus a bit more on his music. As he moves forward, however, he said he would miss what he would be leaving behind.

“It’s kinda sad to think you’re going to end a period of your life that’s been such an important part of your life,” he said. “I love teaching, and I love kids, and YouthFriends has given me an opportunity to include the entire education system, K through 12.”

Elaine Berg will be retiring as language arts teacher at Clark Middle School, where she has taught for the last 20 years — though she has been teaching since 1966, when she took a position at Oskaloosa High School with her husband. She said she was retiring because she had been up for retirement for several years now.

“I am three years over the time in which I could have retired,” Elaine said. “Since Larry was retiring from YouthFriends, I thought we’d both retire at the same time and enjoy some of the things in life we have not been able to do because we were both employed fulltime.”

Elaine said she planned to take that Boston to Maine trip with Larry in October, and she would also like to focus on volunteering. She said she might also consider doing some substitute teaching in the future. As for her long-standing teaching career, she said it had been the students that kept her in the classroom day after day.

“The reason I come back to it is because I enjoy working with students,” Elaine said. “I like to share knowledge I have with students. Possibly it will make an impact on their life when they grow up.”

Assistant principal Hanson is finishing up his ninth year at Bonner Springs High School, but he has been involved in education for 40 years. He said he has enjoyed working with the staff at BSHS as well as the students, but 40 years, which he said was longer than he planned to stay in teaching, was long enough.

“I think I’d probably want to get up in the morning and wonder what am I going to do today and not have to jump in the car and punch a time clock, so to speak,” Hanson said.

Hanson said he also planned to travel, possibly outside the United States, to Paris or London. He would like to take in some more fishing, go to more Royals games than he is able to now and spend more time with his family.

He said, with 40 years under his belt, it would be hard to let go of teaching.

“I mean, you don’t spend 40 years of your life doing something and walk away and not miss it,” Hanson said. “All of the interaction with the kids, with the staff, with the community members, you’ll miss that.”

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