Social Studies teacher Nancy Lowrey, after teaching at the high school for thirteen years, has made the decision to retire after this school year. The ending of a program that allowed teachers who started teaching as a second career to retire earlier with full benefits prompted her decision.

“The Missouri state legislature passed a program several years ago for second career teachers to get them into the classroom, to bring their expertise with them,” Lowrey said. “The teachers who come in as a second career would never be able to teach long enough in their second career to draw in the full retirement. So they passed a program several years ago that if you’re over age 50 with at least five years experience, you can take what’s called the early retirement and get some kind of retirement benefits. The program expires in 2013.”

If Lowrey stayed after the end of the program, she would have to work years longer to reach a point of full retirement.

“I would have to be a teacher for 30 years to be fully retired,” Lowrey said. “I’d be 68 years old. So it’s a Missouri legislature thing and there was a possibility of it being renewed, but I needed to make the decision now, and if I don’t go out now and I teach a couple more years, I’ll actually lose money. So it’s now.”

While she is looking forward to retirement, Lowrey is going to miss the people she now interacts with on a day-to-day basis.

“[I’ll miss] the people I work with, number one, and the kids,” Lowrey said.

Lowrey will be missed by the rest of the staff as well.

She’s always one that’s happy and laughing and she has such a sweet and pleasant personality,” principal Dr. Jim Pritchett said. “That’s always hard to replace. And obviously we’ll miss her expertise because she’s an expert in her subject area and dealing with kids and shes done it for a long time so certainly we’ll miss that too.”

Lowrey has had a large impact on the students and teachers she has influenced in her time at the school.

“Her experience definitely is an asset for students and for our school,” Dr. Pritchett said. “She’s been a mentor for a lot of new, younger teachers in their first, second and third year and even five to ten years. She has experience teaching as long as she has to benefit them. And obviously the impact she has on her students. The passion that she has for teaching and the love for kids is definitely a benefit and has been a real asset to Rolla High School for several years.”

But even though she’ll miss the people at the school, Lowrey is very excited about experiencing retired life.

“[I’m looking forward to] not grading papers,” Lowrey said. “And I’m not going to miss going to meetings. I’m not going to miss doing gate duty. I’m not going to miss doing dance duty.”

Along with being able to do more of what she wants, retirement will allow Lowrey to be more involved with her classes at Columbia College.

“Well, I am going to teach more college classes as Columbia College,” Lowrey said. “At this point, I teach one class a term, and with this retirement, then I can teach more education classes at Columbia College and possibly do more with the education department over there. So I have some opportunities out there.”

In the end, Lowrey is grateful for her experiences and memories that she has made in her time teaching at this school.

“It’s been a great run,” Lowrey said. “It’s been a fast eighteen years overall. Teaching wasn’t something I planned on doing, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it.”