By Karen Campbell, Weakley County Schools Communications Director
Dresden, Tenn.–At the June meeting of the Weakley County School Board the 2022 retirees were recognized and celebrated. Retirees received an engraved plaque “for dedicated service to the teaching profession” and joined family and friends at a reception following the meeting. Those in attendance were:
• Deborah Perkins, the Supervisor of the Special Education Department since 2012, who is concluding a 40-year career in education spent in Henry County and Weakley County.
• Phyllis Gearin, math teacher at Gleason School, who started teaching in the 1982-83 school year at Dresden High and moved to Gleason School in 1990, where she is ending her 34-year career.
• Debra Simmons, who spent the entirety of her 33 years in Weakley County as a teacher at Palmersville and then Dresden Elementary School.
• Melissa Stafford, English teacher, who spent one month at Greenfield School in the 1991-92 school year and then moved to Gleason where she remained for 31 years.
• Kim Castleman, retiring from Martin Primary with 28 years in the field, who began as a teacher in 1994, then spent time at the Northwest Center of Regional Excellence and teaching in McKenzie before returning to Weakley in 2018.
• Beth Kempton, Weakley County Schools Nurse Supervisor and Westview nurse who began with the county in the 1999-2000 school year and built the current school nurse program over the course of 23 years.
• Judy Martin, the Greenfield School librarian, who devoted her 22-year career to the Milan and Weakley County school systems.
• Gwen Hardy, whose 21 years in education were all spent at Dresden Elementary.
Retirees unable to attend the evening event were Jeanie Travis, a consulting teacher with the County’s Special Education Department, who is concluding a 42-year career; Robin Pape, who ended her 29 years in teaching with a final stint at Martin Elementary and Dresden Elementary where she taught music; and Zann Wortham, who retired from Martin Primary in July 2021 after 20 years and returned part-time as a reading interventionist currently serving at Sharon School.
Photo: Deborah Perkins, the Supervisor of the Special Education Department since 2012, who is concluding a 40-year career in education spent in Henry County and Weakley County congratulated by the Director of Schools and board members.