 |
The Queen of Athens
& the Heart of our building |
One of our beloved teachers and friends,
JoAnn Macaluso, died yesterday morning. Ms. Macaluso, or Miss Mac as we called
her, has touched the hearts and minds of our students, staff and our entire
school community for over forty-eight years. She was a mentor, a friend, a
teacher, a leader and a member of the family for thousands of students and
colleagues over her career. Miss Mac is loved and respected by so many not just
because of what she did as a teacher, but because of how she did it and how she
made us all feel. She made you feel like you were the most important person in the world because to her, you were. Miss Mac lived her life with passion, grace, humility, class
and a contagious energy that filled up a room. She was my mentor when I started
my career in the classroom, she was my role model for the kind of teacher I wanted
to be, and she was one of my biggest cheerleaders and advisors when I stepped
into administration. We are all better people because we had her in our lives.
As you can imagine this is going to be a very
difficult time for many who were touched by her. This morning at school we had the
opportunity to share our feelings and memories of Miss Mac as we work through
our grief. As students and staff were talking, telling stories and sharing their
greatest memories of her, our tears are beginning to turn to laughter and our
heavy hearts are slowly becoming a little lighter as we reflect on all of the happy
times with our dear friend.
Miss Mac lived her life doing what she loved with
the people that she loved. And we all loved her.
Steve Dunham
