After 38 Years, Reed Fifth Grade Teacher Al Washicko Says ‘That’s All Folks’

By Eliza Hallabeck

A swarm of students waiting to leave school on Friday, January 29, crowded around fifth grade teacher Al Washicko outside his Reed Intermediate School classroom for the last time.

After 38 years in the classroom, Mr Washicko retired on Friday to work as an editor at Abcteach, an online source for children’s education, www.abcteach.com.

Earlier in the day, Mr Washicko delivered donuts from Dotty’s Diner in Woodbury around the school, something he has been doing for years to mark special occasions. The donut box on Friday was decorated with a cutout of the Warner Bros character Porky Pig and the slogan “That’s All Folks,” from the company’s Looney Tunes cartoons.

“I did not want to leave at midyear, but my hand was pressed,” Mr Washicko said, adding it became evident it was going to happen. “But now I am looking at it from the perspective of, I think it is going to make it easier for me, because it is not going to be a cold-turkey withdrawal from the kids.”

In another couple of weeks, he said, he will see his students again at a showing for a movie for one of the books the cluster has been reading.

Mr Washicko’s cluster partner Karen King said Mr Washicko was at Head O’ Meadow in 1999 when she began teaching at the school.

“It’s not like I am going to fall of the edge of the earth,” said Mr Washicko, “I am only ten miles away.”

While he did not want to retire midway through the school year, Mr Washicko said the situation was too perfect to pass up. The position with Abcteach will also ease what was an approaching scheduling conflict in his family, he said. The website produces material for a range of subjects for teachers around the world.

“It was a position where I could work as many hours as I wanted or as few hours, and I don’t have any deadlines,” he said. He added he will also be able to work from his Southbury home for the website.

Mr Washicko career began at Hawley Elementary School as a student teacher, and he then went to teach second grade at Pomperaug Elementary School in Southbury in 1972.

“I had student taught at Hawley School prior to that, in 1971,” said Mr Washicko.

At the end of his two-year contract with Pomperaug, Mr Washicko went to Hawley School to teach a cluster of fourth and fifth grade with Eric Nyitray.

Mr Washicko followed Edgar Rodrigues, who he calls his mentor, to Head O’ Meadow when the school opened. Mr Rodrigues became the school’s principal.

“And I stayed at Head O’ Meadow from 1977 until 2001, teaching either fourth grade or fifth grade or a fourth and fifth grade combination all those years,” Mr Washicko said.

In 2001, he was invited by the Connecticut State Department of Education to serve as the Teacher in Residence. His work with the state involved training other teachers to work with developing teachers.

“I was there for a year,” he said, “and that was when they were planning to open up this building.”

While working for the state, he would return one day a week to work in Newtown doing research on fifth and sixth grade schools.

“Alice Jackson was the assistant superintendent, and she was looking into formats for five/six schools. I would come back and I would help her do research on the five/six schools,” he said.

While working with the state, he said he missed working in the classroom with students.

“So I decided to come back, and I did,” said Mr Washicko. “Then we opened up this building, and this is where I have been since 2002, January. And here we are, 38 years in the blink of an eye.”

“I made the right choice to become a teacher,” Mr Washicko said.

 “Honestly without some of the help he gave me, I do not know what I would have done,” said Ms King, explaining that Mr Washicko is a teacher of teachers. “He was the go-to guy.”

Mr Washicko also said he plans to return to the school to visit through the rest of the school year.

He learned about the open position with Abcteach from Ken Royal, who was in charge of technology at Reed when the school opened. Mr Royal posted information on Mr Washicko accepting the position at www.educatorsroyaltreatment.com, that explained his sadness and happiness in Mr Washicko’s decision to retire from the classroom.

“The sadness is that he won’t have 30 kids smiling back at him daily,” Mr Royal wrote. “The happiness is that after all those years of teaching, imagine all the students who were blessed to have been in the right place and right time to have him as their teacher.”

Mr Royal was not alone in saying Mr Washicko’s lessons had heart and meaning.

Reed Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore said Mr Washicko always taught with the best interest of the students at heart.

“He will be missed,” said Dr Salvatore.

“We just congratulate him on the thousands of Newtown children he has taught over the years,” said Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda said Mr Washicko was also instrumental in the professional growth of district staff. Both Dr Gejda and Dr Robinson wished Mr Washicko the best of luck on Friday.

Reed Intermediate School Principal Sharon Epple said when she began her teaching career at Head O’ Meadow School in 1985, she student-taught with Mr Washicko.

“What can you say about a man who dedicates his entire life to mentoring teachers and giving to students and their families?” said Dr Epple. “Karen King has referred to Al as being ‘Grandpa’, because whenever he talks, kids listen to him. Here’s the thing, in 1985 whenever he spoke, kids would listen to him, too. So it has nothing to do with his age. It is his command, his presence, his brilliance, his consistency, his organization, and all these things he taught me.”

Being able to come back to Reed Intermediate to work with Mr Washicko was a gift, Dr Epple said. Mr Washicko agreed, and said it made it that much harder to leave in the middle of the school year.

“The best gift we can give him is to support him in his new endeavor,” Dr Epple said. Laughing, she added, “And I know where he lives. I know where to find him.”

Ms King said teaching is a unique profession.

“Every single day you make a decision about how much of yourself you are going to put into it,” Ms King said to Mr Washicko on Friday. “You can choose to give, or you can choose to just do your job. And to just give for 38 years, that is what you did, Al.”

Looking back on his year’s in the classroom, Mr Washicko said the trick to teaching is making it something for the students to enjoy.

“The most important thing teachers at our levels do, is make the students like going to school,” he said. “And over the years the parents that I have had, have given me that kind of feedback. The students cannot wait to get here, they do not want to stay home when they are sick, they do their homework, and that is what is important. If you instill that in the kids, everything else falls into place.”