Three retire from Milaca schools

Greg Anderson Greg Anderson is moving into a new chapter of his life following 34 years of teaching. In 1975, right out of college, he signed a contract in Milaca after interviewing with Harold Kurth.  Though most of his career was centered around fourth grade, he has finished up with the last several years as a social studies departmental teacher in sixth grade.  Greg came to Milaca following high school graduation from McIntosh and after earning a BS degree in education from Moorhead State. In addition to his teaching years, Greg has been a coach with the Milaca athletic programs for most of those 34 years. His specialties included golf, junior varsity and 8th grade girls basketball, head baseball, junior high baseball and 7th grade volleyball.  Greg met and married his wife, Linda, and together they have raised three children.  Tom, who resides in Milaca and is married to Jessica, Laura who resides in Pine City and is married to Craig Kotsmith, and Megan who has recently graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth Campus.  Greg and Linda will spend retirement enjoying their grandchildren, two of whom will be arriving in the next several months.  In addition, Greg plans to do some substitute teaching, some projects around the house and even some farming up in Winger where he grew up. He also plans to take up reading history and action novels and doing some traveling with his wife. Though Greg remembers many funny stories over the years, his story about stress marks on syllables might be one of the funniest.  He was explaining that you put a stress mark on the syllable that has the emphasis and then he demonstrated with various vocabulary words.  One of these words happened to be “happiness.” As he stood before his fourth graders, he asked the question, “Do you say HA PI NESS or HA PI NESS or...”  At that point, he realized what had slipped from his mouth and he went right on with a new and different example. The highlights of Greg’s career were the many fun times he had coaching, especially basketball, and his 10 years as varsity baseball coach.  He will never forget the energy he experienced in his own classroom over the years, with his fellow teachers and within the district. When asked about the advice he would give to the school district and staff, he quickly talked about “dreams” and he encouraged all of us to “keep the dream alive for the kids.”  Greg, most recently, has given back with his singing and conversation talents during the “Mr. Anderson” variety shows he has hosted for the Milaca Scholarship Foundation fund raisers.  We hope that we will continue to enjoy his wit and his musical talent.   Our thanks go out to Greg for his many years of service and we hope that his retirement dreams will be all that he hopes them to be.  It will be good to see him around in our classrooms next year.  Let’s hope that there is a “Mr. Anderson’s Retirement Show” in our future some day. Carol Pederson After 24 years as a Milaca school district employee, Carol Pederson has decided to fill her life with retirement activities.  Though she has been back to substitute occasionally for us, her hours have been consumed with reading mysteries as well as many other types of books, traveling to Hawaii and traveling to the Iowa Tulip Festival.  She is now planning a winter trip to both Texas and Arizona and a summer road trip to Copper Harbor, Mich. to see the sites. Carol began in the Milaca district as a para-educator in one of our high school computer labs.  She remembers the days of the very large computers and remembers her key punch days prior to becoming a Milaca School District employee.  She also worked in a video game business after graduating from high school. Following her Milaca para years, Carol entered the Milaca clerical group and worked in the high school with attendance and MARSS reporting.  During her last many years, however, she moved to the elementary and became our elementary MARSS specialist. Going way back, Carol graduated from Onamia high school and continues to live, with her husband, in Onamia. Carol raised two sons and one daughter over the years and now enjoys her grandparent role with eight grandchildren scattered between Milaca, Alexandria and Onamia.  There is never a dull moment since she always has a band concert or softball game to attend. Recently, she and her husband purchased a second four wheeler and she has been known to do some “mud” runs with grandchildren in tow cheering her on. Who would have ever thought of her in that light! Carol’s advice to the Milaca staff is to enjoy your job, enjoy the children and to keep on learning and teaching.  Carol mentioned the great Milaca staff she has been able to work with and mentioned how much she enjoyed each work day.  If you see a camper with all the amenities heading down the road, it could be Eldon and Carol heading toward their next adventure. If you need advice on how to knit or crochet, Carol is your resource for this and if you want to learn how to play a banjo, wait another month or two and ask Carol for lessons. She has recently taken up this skill and has joined her talented and musical husband in his musical performances.   We appreciate the years of service Carol has given us, we wish her well in retirement and we appreciate her willingness to continue to help us out from time to time as one of our outstanding substitutes. Dr. Barbra Zakrajsek After a 38-year educational career, I am moving into retirement.  Following Chisholm High School graduation, I attended  the College of St. Scholastica and then earned my bachelor’s degree from St. Cloud State University.  Chokio Alberta was the location where my teaching career began and where I also directed the one act and three act plays, and coached speech.  During these years, correct licensure was not as important as it is today and thus, I had the opportunity to teach seventh grade English in addition to K-12 vocal music.  Both my master’s degree and doctorate degrees were earned from the University of Minnesota in educational administration. My administrative career as administrative assistant intern was launched at Mahtomedi High School and, following some assistant principalships in Rochester and Columbia Heights, I became the high school principal in Becker.  From Becker, I assumed the principal position of LaCrosse (Wisc.) Central High School. Within three years, I wished to return to Minnesota where I became the curriculum director of the Northfield Public Schools.  When budget reductions resulted in the elimination of that position, I decided it was time to look at the superintendency and I accepted that position in Blackduck. After three years in Blackduck and before arriving in Milaca, I also spent eight years as the superintendent in Proctor.  Throughout these moves, I adopted three babies from India. My oldest, Mara, (now married to Aaron Pinson), arrived on graduation night in Becker some 27 years ago weighing 4 1⁄2 pounds.  Daughters  Jenna and Priya arrived later and were proud graduates of Milaca High School in 2004 and 2007.  I’ll probably spend at least the first few years of my retirement working as an interim superintendent part-time and doing some traveling to Texas, Colorado and Mankato to visit my children.  Scrapbooking, reading, baking and cooking will consume many of my hours as well.  I plan to continue to volunteer with the Milaca Scholarship Foundation because it provides me with a wonderful opportunity to continue to give back to our students. The funny stories are too many to elaborate but one comes to mind as I am writing this. Going way back to the beginning of my career, I remember the Christmas concert of 1970.  I was rehearsing the song “Hark How the Bells’ with my high school choir.  The girls were singing, “Hark How the Bells, Sweet Silver Bells All Seem To Say....” And the boys were singing “Ding, Dong, Ding Dong.” After putting the girls’ and boys’ parts together,  I discovered that it was a mess and that we needed more work on parts.  I loudly announced, “Girls, I want you to sit quietly while I practice with the boys on their Ding Dongs.”  Needless to say, the rehearsal was over at that point and I stood there with a very red face. One of the highlights of my career has to do with meeting and working side-by-side with so many professional and wonderful staff and school board members I now call friends. As a single parent, I also greatly appreciate my career allowing me to be close to my children as they grew up. My advice to the district is for us not to lose the special small town atmosphere of this school and community because it is one of our greatest assets and it is the reason why so many of us chose to raise our children here.

 

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