Pictured is Connie Foster, a long-time Jamestown Public Schools educator and administrator. She retired this year and is looking forward to a busy retirement. Submitted photo

A member of the educational community at the Jamestown Public Schools District is headed for retirement.

Connie Foster has been working within the for 31 years and will take her retirement to focus on family and other important tasks and issues. She worked in various areas, including Jamestown High School, Washington Middle School, Ring Elementary School and Love Elementary School. She served in multiple roles, including as a teacher, vice principal, principal and coordinator of world languages.

“I really enjoyed the PBIS assemblies both at Ring and at Love, where they were just fun and exciting,” Foster said. “At the same time, we were teaching kids to be respectful, responsible and safe. Those assemblies were fun. I really enjoyed the opportunities to go into the classes and interact with kids and the adults. One of the best things is as a teacher, you do your best to teach — and then as a principal, you go in and observe people teaching. I have observed many, many of what I would Calle excellent teachers — I’ve told people that I would be a better teacher today because of all of the good examples and good teaching techniques and all that I’ve witnessed as I was observing teachers.”

Foster started her career in education in Idaho Falls and Phoenix, Ariz. She worked part-time, which enabled her to spend more time with her children.

“I was just having my children at that time,” Foster said. “Several of those jobs in those early years were part-time, and to keep part-time, I did half-day kindergarten and I did a part-time Title One program. I changed positions often so I could keep that part-time basis early on, but when I came to Jamestown, I went right into secondary school, right into high school.”

She began as a Spanish teacher in the high school, which she had never done before. She then transitioned into teaching ESL classes. For that reason, the English Language Learning education programming is highly important to her, and she hopes the district will continue focusing on that element of education.

“My big push would be to keep working toward being unified as a community and being responsive to the cultural diversity we have in Jamestown,” she said.

Foster said throughout her tenure at Jamestown Public Schools, she was glad to tackle the changes and challenges that came with each new position.

“Each time that I changed a position, whether it was teaching or in administration, I just feel like there’s so much learning and the learning part not only keeps you fresh and keeps your brain active — I found myself saying, ‘This is my new favorite position,'” Foster said. “It’s exciting for me to see how pieces fit together, and as we tried to work through the problem with the pandemic and how to handle schools, it was just a very difficult, yet rewarding time. We had great success, even though there were a lot of things that were not great – we had great success with what we were doing and with keeping kids sick. Even though we lost a lot academically, we made gains because we were so focused on our curriculum.”

Foster had a large impact on the district as a whole, said C.C. Ring Elementary School teacher Marcella Centi.

“I loved anytime I got to chat with Connie,” Centi said. “She was always so calm about everything. I remember several times going to see her as a frazzled, frustrated and sometimes tearful teacher and she would calmly listen as long as I needed her to even though I knew she had a million things to do. She was here early and stayed late. We’d often find her husband Doug waiting outside her office, with the same patience she had, past dinnertime even -for her to have the day wrapped up and ready for tomorrow.”

She said Foster has “a heart for kids and their families and the integrity to do the right thing always.” Centi said Foster had a knack for making families feel welcomed and loved, and her bilingual skills made sure “all voices were heard and needs were met.”

“She has always been such a hard worker,” Centi said. “She’s dedicated her life to this school system putting in the time, energy and heart well beyond what could ever be expected. She has helped shape me into the teacher I am today. She will be greatly missed.”

Adrianna Camarata, Love School Elementary Kindergarten teacher, also said working with Conne was a great experience.

“Connie is an encouraging, compassionate, and positive person,” Camarata said. “She saw the blessings in all situations. She worked hard and was a champion for all students. I worked with Connie for one year at Love school. She was important to JPS because she always put her students and staff as her top priority. She was also able to get higher results.”

Camarata said Love School wishes Connie and her husband, Doug, all the best in their retirement.

“They deserve it,” she said.

Foster retired in July but has been helping with transitions in the district. She plans to do missions work during her retirement with her husband through her church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“One of the biggest things is – we’ve been married 41 years, and we set a goal that we would like to when we were retired, we would like to serve a mission and be missionaries for our church. We’re in the process right now of getting our paperwork in order.”

She said they would be able to take care of the paperwork in short order and would receive a missionary assignment within a few weeks.

“We don’t know what our assignment will be,” Foster said. “We could be doing anything from service to proselytizing to educational things. With both of our backgrounds in education, there’s a good possibility we could be doing something educationally in some other part of the world. We’ve received a lot, and we’ve been blessed tremendously, and we have always wanted to give back and help others who haven’t been as blessed as we have.”

“My husband retired a year ago from Jamestown Public Schools also,” she said. “We both moved here from Arizona and started here in 1990.”

She said another goal is to visit their five children and grandchildren, who are located all across the country. Foster said focusing more on their family farm is also an important task they’d like to get to in their retirement.

Foster said the advice she would give others getting into the educational field is to “stay focused.”

“You have to stay focused on why you went into the profession in the first place, and it’s because you want to help children,” she said. “If you keep that focus that they’re the most important part of what you’re doing and that you keep looking for the way to reach them. If they’re struggling or having difficulties, make it a challenge to yourself that you’re going to find the way to break through that and help them.”

She said it’s important not to “give up on the kids.” Foster said she has been blessed to work with colleagues that “really are there for the kids,” which made it a very rewarding career.

“If you lose sight of why you’re there and what you’re doing, it probably is a long haul for some people,” she said. “I can’t believe I’ve been in (education) for 37 and a half years, and I look back on the wonderful experiences and the wonderful people, and it’s been a great experience. I want to thank the community and the school district and everybody who has welcomed my husband and me into the district who have been a part of our lives.”