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Days on campus come to an end Teachers retire after decades of time spent at GV
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By Sebastian Villamil
s summer slowly starts creeping towards students on campus, most of them are excited for their long three month break and hot summer days before heading back to school. For staff members Todd Taylor, Dale Streigle and Julie Goldstein they will be enjoying an extra long summer as they venture into retirement. When the school opened in the fall of 1991 a young 22 year old college student from Minnesota made his way on campus as the new career teacher. Todd Taylor’s job involved teaching students on how to prepare for jobs in the future regarding interviews and preparation skills.Later his job became teaching his favorite subject, U.S. History. “I was trying to get used to Las Vegas, trying to get used to no snow and being without my family,” Taylor said. Three years later, Julie Goldstein arrived on campus as a freshman English teacher. According to Goldstein, she was welcomed by phenomenal teachers. As Goldstein and Taylor were settling in on campus, Dale Striegle arrived in 2002 and started teaching chemistry in the science department. “When I was little I was given a chemistry set for Christmas and ever since that day I’ve had a passion for chemistry,” Streigle said. Streigle has been teaching since the 1970’s and when he moved to Henderson he got an interview call Sebastian Villamil
The InvestiGator t GVHS
with the staff here on campus. He decided to check out the campus after the interview, and soon enough he became a teacher. “It was a big difference moving from a town where the population is the same as the school population,” Striegle said. A couple more years into the 2000’s and Goldstein, who taught ninth grade English in the tech center, took over the yearbook program. “The yearbook is one of the most
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Time is so fast that in a blink of an eye you have already passed 29 years. Todd Taylor
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important parts of high school because it is the only thing that you will hold on too after you leave college. I get people who ask me if I have yearbooks from ‘05 or ‘06,” Goldstein said. Over the 29 years, education has changed a bit. For Goldstein, she believes that the content has turned more skill based rather than content based. This means rather than testing
the student on what family Romeo was from, it has turned into questions like, how does Romeo going to the party, foreshadow the ending of the story. “I think this is a good idea because it gets the student to interact and analyze the text more,” Goldstein said. For U.S. History and chemistry it has not really changed. Taylor explains that although every New Year adds more history, it definitely changes the perspective on how you think. For chemistry, Streigle explained that although the material has not changed, only formulas for certain equations have. As teachers and students have cycled throughout the school, campus has always kept to its high standards and it’s commitment excellence as stated by the teachers. “You know the teachers that opened this school really set that standard of excellence which has been able to persist through all these years,’’ Goldstein said. As for students, they have not changed according to all three teachers. The only difference would be the new technology that has been introduced into student lives which can interfere with the classroom at times. “The only thing that is different is the development of the cell phone because all they want to do now while in the classroom is be on their phone,” Streigle said. Over the years these teachers had the opportunity to meet kids from all different types of backgrounds. These teachers were able to be apart in their
lives. “As a teacher you know that you impact kids’ lives on a daily basis but you don’t think about it, however we try to do our best to give these students the best education,” Goldstein said. As the school years pass these teachers have learned a couple things while being here in campus. “Time is so fast that in a blink of an eye you have already passed 29 years, and this tells you to be grateful and cherish every small moment even if it’s not the best day,” Taylor said. For Goldstein, she believes that you always have to look forward in life because you cannot get shut down by little problems. With the school year coming close to an end the teachers were asked what they were going to do next. “For the first time in my life I don’t know what is next for me, and it is pretty exciting because I always wanted to go back to Minnesota in the fall and then go down to Florida which I could be able to do for the first time in a long time,” Taylor said. For Goldstein she plans on doing something similar. “I plan on traveling which is really exciting,” Goldstein said. As for Striegle he plans to join a couple of friends who have retired this year as well as travel after school ends. This is the new beginning for these teachers who have taught countless years. Retirement has allowed them to move to the next chapter to a new adventure.
Taylor photo courtesy courtesey of of Todd Todd Taylor
