Moline’s 2022-2023 retiring staff members

By: Simon Zimmerman, LO’T Reporter & Sanaj Kapur, LO’T News Co-Editor

This school year has been an absolute blur, but it wouldn’t have happened without our fantastic faculty. The Line O’ Type staff interviewed the retiring staff and would like to thank them for their years at MHS.

Dion Firch

Dion Firch, our dedicated mathematics teacher, has been teaching for 26 years and is a Moline Alumni, graduating “long ago.” Her family was full of teachers, and she eventually followed suit. Mrs. Firch’s favorite memories at Moline have been watching the band play on opening day and walking through to soak in the noise. She advised students not to believe that they must have a plan and to instead take a year to determine a path. Of all the joys of working at Moline, she explained that she will miss the kids and faculty the most.

Nikki Lambrecht

Nikki Lambrecht, MHS’s hard-working bookkeeper, initially became a hall monitor for Moline after having children but moved into the bookstore just a few years later. In total, she has been working at MHS for 26 years, but can’t place her finger on a favorite memory. She loves when, once or twice a year, her name is listed as Veronica and no one can identify her! Her plans for retirement include spending time with her friends and parent living in Arizona. Like Mrs. Firch, she will miss the friends she has made here at school.

Carolyn Mesick

Carolyn Mesick, our lovely librarian and media specialist, plans to enjoy her life after work by “cleaning my house” and traveling to every state. She is currently at 36 out of 50! She explained that she works to set up career expos to help kids consider the possibilities she didn’t, encouraging every student to get experience by volunteering, looking for internships, or looking for employment. She distinctly remembers setting up a display near the “M” where she found a picture of the old auditorium, which opened almost exactly 60 years before the Bartlett Performing Arts Center, and this was her memory of choice.

Tamara Nelson

Tamara Nelson, the wonderfully kind life skills teacher, voiced that it was her first-grade teacher that ignited her passion for teaching. However, college is what brought her to teach in the special needs program, which has become the highlight of her instructing career, most notably, watching her kids’ success in Special Olympics. After she retires, she plans to travel and go east to explore the country. Like her colleagues, she said that she will miss her students and faculty the most. We thank her significantly for her time at MHS and her dedication to her students and colleagues. Thank you again and enjoy your retirement. .

Jeff Weller, the magnificent mathematician, started teaching because of the prospect of coaching and has been teaching at Moline since 1998! He’s established himself as a great coach and better teacher in his time. He expressed that his favorite memory was coaching baseball with the late Derek Lindauer. After retirement, he plans to hunt, and fish around the area in ad- dition to following his kids sports teams. On behalf of the entire student body, we would like to thank these faculty for the hard work and time they’ve sunk into helping us succeed. We as students owe everything to our teachers and we hope they enjoy their retirement as much as we enjoyed their time at MHS .