Navarro retires from Ontario Middle School
Sunday, April 25, 2004 9:15 AM PDT
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| Tricia Alvarez | Argus Observer
Ontario Middle School assistant principal Georgia Navarro has put in 25 years with the Ontario School District and 30 years in the teaching and administrative field. She will be retiring at the end of the 2003-2004 school year but will begin teaching part time at Treasure Valley Community College in the fall. |
Tricia Alvarez Argus Observer ONTARIO
Thirty years after she first started teaching, Georgia Navarro, assistant principal at Ontario Middle School, will retire at the end of the school year.
Navarro started her teaching career in 1973, after graduating from Idaho State, Pocatello. Her first job was as a language arts teacher at Mount Vernon High School.
"There were only 45 kids in the school. It was fun. I took the senior class (five kids) on a trip to British Columbia in my car for their senior trip," she said.
Navarro continued on as a language arts teacher in Prairie City from 1975 to 1977.
After the new special education law was put into place in 1976, Navarro started her 12-year career as a special education teacher.
In 1977, she went to work at Ontario High School.
"I was the first special education teacher Ontario High School ever had. I got to set up my own programs," Navarro said.
After marrying, Navarro went to work in La Grande as a special education teacher for two years before returning to Ontario and where she took on the task of special education specialist at Lindberg and Pioneer Elementary Schools.
A few years later, Navarro moved on to what was know at the time as Ontario Junior High.
When Don Sutherland retired as the language arts and social studies teacher in 1988, Navarro went back to teaching his subjects to seventh graders.
"Seventh-grade was my favorite age group," Navarro said.
Seventeen years after she started teaching, Navarro wanted to do something else. Already equipped with a teaching credential and her masters degree, she decided to earn her administrative credentials. In 1991, she Navarro received those credentials after attending Albertson College.
That same year, Navarro became the assistant principal of Ontario Middle School under the direction of Gene Bates.
Ontario School District superintendent contacted Navarro in 1995 and offered her the position of principal at Pioneer Elementary School and she accepted, she said.
"I was not only the principal, I was also the special education specialist there," Navarro said.
When Irene Bates retired from May Roberts Elementary School, Navarro became the principal at that school.
In 2000, Navarro landed her final and current position as one of the assistant principals at OMS.
"I think changing jobs or locations every four or five years keeps thing fresh and you are not in a rut," Navarro said.
In her current position, Navarro has a multitude of responsibilities. She supervises breakfast and lunch, attends meetings nearly every morning, reads the morning announcement, disciplines students and performs the athletic director duties for the middle school.
"The best part of the athletic director job is that I get to see some of the best kids doing good stuff and I have gotten to meet other AD's and coaches from other schools," Navarro said.
Though the years at the elementary and secondary schools have been good ones, Navarro is looking forward to retirement.
"I will be a part-time instructor at TVCC. I will teach nine hours per quarter in low-level English classes, teaching teaching classes and I will be supervising student teachers for Eastern Oregon University," Navarro said.
