Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – Jeana Morrison jokes that it only took her 33 years to graduate from sixth grade.
She spent the entirety of those 33 years in the Warren County School District, with the 2020-21 campaign being her final one.
Over the course of those 33 years, she’s impacted countless lives and made lifelong friends, so of course, the last day was an emotional one.
“It was bittersweet,” Morrison said. “It was actually a little easier than it would have been had I not gone to virtual academy this year. I didn’t have kids that I saw every single day. It wasn’t as hard as the last days of school each year. I thought I wasn’t going to cry, but when my co-workers got me a cake, I got a little teary-eyed.”
It’s a common phrase that teaching ‘is a calling.’ Morrison didn’t feel that way, at least not initially. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to go to college, but her athletic prowess earned her a scholarship to Mercyhurst University.
“Truth be told, I didn’t know if I even wanted to go to college,” she said. “My sister was a teacher, but I wouldn’t have said it was really a calling at first. But right away, I was really pulled to teaching because of the reading classes. My junior year I really decided that’s the way I wanted to go.”
She came home to Warren County, where the first five years she spent teaching third grade at Sheffield. She briefly taught both fifth and seventh and eighth grades as well, but the sixth grade is really where she found her sweet spot, spending her years teaching sixth-grade reading.
“I never got tired of it,” she said.
So what were those early years like?
“I was so nervous when I first started in Sheffield,” she admitted. “The teachers at the elementary school, molded me. Chris (Christine) Duell was the most phenomenal teacher you could meet. All those teachers taught you how to love your students. It wasn’t just 8 a.m.-3 p.m., it was every day, all day because it was a small community. You saw all aspects of a child’s life.
“If you want to get to know your students and how they learn, you have to learn about them outside of the classroom. That’s when I decided I wanted to go to kids’ activities. Dance recitals, soccer games, baseball, games, volleyball, music recitals. If kids were doing things outside of school, I wanted to do that. I wanted to make them feel important.”
After those early years in Sheffield, she bid into Beaty after she and her husband Jim’s first child, Andrew, was born. And that’s where she spent the majority of her teaching career.
From Sheffield to Beaty, it’s been one heck of a ride, and she is proud to say she spent all of it in the Warren County School District.
“To say that I taught all 33 years here really makes me proud,” she said. “The fact that I was part of this district, really makes me proud. People don’t realize what most teachers do on a daily basis. And it comes from the top. The administration, when I left on Friday, I had visits from all the administrators thanking me. I can’t even tell you how many superintendents we’ve had in the 33 years I’ve been here, I can’t count them all. What they have right now is an administration that cares about their people.”
One of the things that makes her most proud to be a part of the WCSD is the way everyone looks out for each other and the relationships that come from that sense of community.
Jim, also a longtime teacher in the WCSD who impacted many lives, passed away in 2012.
The way the community helped pick her up, as well as their children Andrew, Allie and Aidan is something she will never forget.
“The No. 1 thing that I will remember about my years of teaching is the people and what they did for me,” Jeana said. “When Jim died and when that happened it was tragic for me and the kids. The way they picked me up and didn’t let me fall was unbelievable. The things that they did for my kids, it would be really difficult to find a group of people that would do that much.
“At Jim’s funeral, there were so many people. Aidan went back to school right away, and he had gone to school teary, and he got off the bus with the biggest smile on his face. Justin Norris and his group of teachers had made a big basket and filled it with gifts for him. It made him feel welcome.”
That kind of bond is what makes this place special, and for Jeana, what made going to school for 33 years so enjoyable.
“I know I laughed every day,” she said. “And you smiled at least one time every day.”
Over the course of those 33 years, she’s seen a lot, both positive and negative. But mostly positive.
“It’s both positive and negative, I think,” she said about how things have changed over the course of her career. ”The one thing that I never really concerned myself with was test scores. I never decided whether I did a good job or a bad job based on test scores. I went on what they learned from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and how they grew as a person. So much emphasis is put on test scores. It’s not a true measure of who a child is or who a teacher is. I think that’s the worst part of teaching, how it’s changed.
“As far as how it’s changed for the good, every teacher that I have ever worked with in this school district really works so hard. All they want is success for the kids. I think that Warren is really lucky, the small area that we are in. The people that decide to teach here care about each other. I was lucky enough to have all these years, co-workers that would do anything for you. The things I saw teachers do in this community, food drives, clothing drives, a phone call about a house fire, and the next day, the clothes and money were just piling in for people. The Warren County teachers were always willing to help. The small things, every year, getting an email from Tina Zigler that she had anonymous donors of boots and her asking ‘do you know kids that need boots or jackets.’ And you saw it all the time.”
It’s those bonds that will stay with her and continue, even though she is now retired.
“Who would have thought the year I taught during the pandemic was the best year I had,” she said. “The people I worked with, the things I saw people in the regular classrooms doing was just amazing.”
And now she’ll watch as her younger teachers continue the job of molding and teaching, having no doubt picked up lessons from her along the way.
In the meantime, she’s going to travel, enjoy her family, and work on her golf game. Andrew recently moved to Edinboro, where he is completing his Master’s Degree in addition to being a varsity assistant for Cambridge Springs High School football.
Allie is across the country, living in San Francisco, and Aidan will be getting set to head back to Canisius College in the fall, where he plays baseball.
“I can go see Allie in San Francisco, follow Aidan’s baseball games and go watch Cambridge Springs football and watch Andrew coach,” she said. “I want to be able to spend time with my family. And maybe cut a few strokes off my golf game, of course.”
She also joked about writing a book.
“All the things kids have done over 33 years,” she said with a laugh.
