Two teachers retire from Greenfield Union School District after the school year

GREENFIELD – Two teachers from Greenfield Union School District are retiring at the end of this academic year. Bertie Ortiz from Cesar Chavez Elementary and Juanita Gonzalez from Vista Verde Middle School will end their teaching careers and embark on a new chapter in their lives.

Bertie Ortiz said, “I have been teaching for 40 years; 18 years in the United States and two in Greenfield.”

Though he stayed for only two years, Ortiz has enjoyed the time spent in Greenfield. After having worked in Philippians and around California, Ortiz was grateful he got to be part of the resource specialist program for special education.

During his retirement, Ortiz still hopes to work on education youth. Ortiz said, “I think I will go part time as a director for an autistic center.” He sees his next step take place in Bakersfield near his wife, who is a registered nurse. On his leisure time, he hopes to continue to play guitar, chess and tennis.

For Ortiz, his teaching career is vivid with memories. He said, “I will take with the memories of working with kids from kindergarten to middle school. I love children. I love to talk with them and work with them. In my early years, I helped produce a governor, senior vice president of a company and I helped train them all. The reward in education is really satisfying.”

One thing Ortiz has never forgotten, “You don’t yell at kids. You talk to them nice and sincere and you will be fine.”

Another person retiring this academic year is Juanita Gonzalez from the Head Start in Vista Verde. After teaching pre-school since 1981, she is planning on retiring and relocating to Arizona.

“I have worked fifteen years for this district,” said Juanita Gonzalez. “I worked for the Monterey County Office of Education Head Start before this.”

For Gonzalez, she enjoys seeing the students develop from the beginning of the year to the end.

“It’s been nice to see the children from the 80’s to now,” said Gonzalez. “Another one is I have a child that reads now and is bilingual. I will never forget that wonderful gifted child. He’s good at math, he adds, he subtracts and he is just gifted.”



For the complete article see the 06-06-2012 issue.