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Retirements Celebrated At Sacred Heart School
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Sacred Heart School recently celebrated the long service of several teachers. Read more about Judi Roberts, Mike Marek, David Andrys, and Debbie (Luth) Heitman. Say “Thank You” to these, or any other retired teacher or staff member by making a contribution to the Sacred Heart Memorial Scholarship in their honor online at www.shfoundationegf.org/memorialscholarship.
Judi Roberts - Retirement
Current/Past titles: Elementary 1st grade teacher (1980-2020), Sunshine Committee
What brought you to Sacred Heart School? I was attending the University of North Dakota and had just finished student teaching in Arizona with a Kindergarten class. I was placed in the Sacred Heart first grade classroom of Sr. Cecilia Smith to continue my student teaching. Sr. Cecilia was a great mentor and gave me a variety of experiences with first grade students. She was a dedicated Catholic school teacher and a blessing to me in my early years of teaching. After I graduated from UND I taught preschool at United Day Preschool and volunteered in Sr. Cecilia’s classroom. In the fall of 1980 Sacred Heart started the first Kindergarten class with Sr. Cecilia as the teacher, which led me to take the first grade teaching position. Here’s a fun fact, I was hired by Mr. David Andrys as the first grade teacher.
What are your retirement plans? My husband and I were fortunate to have retired last spring. We are enjoying this new adventure. Some of our favorite pastimes are visiting with family, taking walks, bicycle adventures, attending Mass, reading, and gardening.
What have you enjoyed the most about teaching? The most enjoyable part of teaching first grade is the students. I love seeing the first graders grow in their reading abilities throughout the year and gain a love for reading. Teaching and sharing the Catholic faith with my students was a privilege and an amazing adventure to help them grow in the faith.
How do you hope you are remembered? I would like to be remembered as a dedicated Sacred Heart Catholic School teacher that loved her students and teaching ministry.
What will you miss the most? This past year what I have missed the most is the students and teaching at Sacred Heart.
What are you most proud of from your time at SHS? I’m most proud of my dedication to the students and parents of Sacred Heart School. The families support their child as they grow in the Catholic faith and academic skills. Thank you to all the parents that have shared their children with me. What a blessing this ministry has been in my life.
Mike Marek - Retirement
Current/Past titles: Teacher for 43 years (Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Biology, Physical Science, Earth Science, Life Science), assistant principal (1 year), athletic director (15 years), head softball coach (18 years), head girls basketball coach (17 years), assistant football coach (6 years), and youth basketball coordinator (11 years).
What brought you to Sacred Heart School? I started coaching after I graduated from Sacred Heart in 1970 as I was attending UND. After my degree in teaching/coaching, In August 1978, I returned from my first three years spent teaching in Australia. I had a great experience during my time at Sacred Heart as a student, so I decided to give back to the institution that gave so much to me.
What are your retirement plans? I still want to be involved wherever I am needed. I am praying for direction on where the Lord might want me to go next. I might volunteer more visiting the sick and elderly. I’d still like to have a school garden for the food shelf. We’d like to visit grandchildren more often and I’d like to continue my hobbies -- fishing, golf, cards, and travel.
What have you enjoyed the most about teaching? I enjoy when my students have that a-HA moment! Or seeing students with little confidence start to believe that they CAN achieve academically. I enjoyed when I could connect myself and students with creation and the Creator through nature, especially on field trips to lakes, glacial field trips, and kayaking down the Red River with River Watch. I also enjoyed my many trips to state softball tournaments.
How do you hope you are remembered? That's a loaded question!!! I think every student would remember me in very different ways (because I have changed so much during my career - we all do!). After hearing from past students all last week - they have such diverse memories. Some meories were so life changing to them, but I could hardly remember the encounter. As I grew personally, professionally, and spiritually the students derived different things from our relationship. I guess my motto has been, "TAKE THE BEST AND FORGIVE THE REST." I would like to share an anology. Teaching, coaching and parenting for that matter, is like playing darts without a dartboard. You just keep on throwing darts. In time, some of those darts hit the mark. As teachers, coaches, and parents our job is to keep throwing them and let the Holy Spirit guide them into the hearts of the young people.
Any particularly memorable or humorous memories you would like to share? If you ask the students and players - I'm sure there is a zillion of them! I won't be specific - but several times in my days, students that should have received severe consequences were given another chance at Sacred Heart. Believing in them elevated them to reach higher than they thought possible (at the same time Iw as elevated to a new and better me as well). So one of my favorite passages in scripture is, "How many times must I forgive my brother? 70 times? - No 70 times 7 times."
What will you miss the most? Always the people! I will also miss witnessing all the good that came from all those struggles in the classroom, on the field, and on the court.
What are you most proud of from your time at SHS?
That I was loyal and faithful to Sacred Heart, even though I knew I could teach in a lot of other places for more money. The Lord has rewarded me tenfold – with the opportunity to deepen my relationship with God. Each and every day I was confronted with faith – through prayer, Mass, and the sacraments. So I am way ahead spiritually! I’m proud of the success of our softball teams! Four times we traveled to the state tournament and eleven times we made it to the section finals.
D
avid Andrys - Retirement
Current/Past titles: Acting 1st-8th Principal (1979), K-8th Principal (1980), K-6th Principal (1987-2013), K-12th Principal (2014-2016), Teacher (American History and Personal Finance). Various “hats” (food service, supervision, accredidation, recruiting, marketing, budget planning, teaching, substitute teaching, and occasional custodial work).
What brought you to Sacred Heart School? I am a 1975 graduate of Sacred Heart. My mother, Mary Ann Logan Andrys, was a 1943 graduate. I graduated from the University of North Dakota with a teaching degree in secondary education and had signed up for the VISTA program (like the Peace Corps, but to work in the U.S.). My plan was to serve the people of Appalachia for a two-year commitment and then start teaching. Unfortunately, Reagan cut the program. In August 1979, the pastor of Sacred Heart called and needed an elementary principal. Sister Mary Jean Gust, my former principal, was going to be the Diocesan School Superintendent.
What are your retirement plans? I often told people when they ask me what I do with my free time that “I don’t golf, I don’t fish, I don’t hunt, I work” so I am not sure. I guess everyday will be Saturday. I had planned to teach until they carried me out because I really enjoyed the students and teaching. Sacred Heart has great kids! They will make a difference. Then the pandemic came and changed a lot of things with online learning. Teaching in a mask was not pleasant. My wife, Bonnie, decided to retire in December and we wanted to spend more time with grandchildren and travel. My son, Simon ‘07, and his family live in Fargo. Right now, I am doing a lot of tasks I have put off for years. I do enjoy family history research. I do not know if I have retirement figured out yet.
What have you enjoyed the most about teaching? I loved the students whether I was a principal or teacher. As a teacher the last few years, I was having so much fun. I loved the curriculum and challenging the 10th graders with my constant questions. There are so many that work so hard to do their best in everything. My studnets were a "forced" audience, so they had to listen to my stories, and unfortunately, for them, I had many. I will miss them!
As a principal, I loved to talk to new families about the school I love. Most do not know how special Sacred Heart School is. Sacred Heart is a preschool, kindergarten through grade 12 Catholic school system that is sponsored by and supported largely by one small parish, Sacred Heart, in a city with less than 9,000 people. There are very few in the United States that have such a model. Most Catholic high schools in the United States have multiple parish support. This is a testament to how dedicated the parish, alumni, and donors are to the mission of Catholic education. This is remarkable considering the budget hardships we went through in the 1980s and 1990s. Some will remember the fundraising we did then such as the magazine drive, talent shows, Harley Raffle, school fests, and Mardi Gras Carnival.
I was rewarded early in my career by working with the Benedictine Sisters of the Mount. They taught me about "ministry." I have great respect for their dedication to their faith and forming their students. They were a powerhouse for Catholic Schools. At the same time, Sacred Heart gradually transitioned to a teaching lay staff who accepted the teaching ministry and mission of Catholic Education. These lay teachers worked at Sacred Heart, and continue to, with much lower salaries than their public-school counterparts. No one knows how hard teaching is until they do it. But it was not just teachers, it was the administrative assistance, hot lunch cooks, the custodians, bus drivers, and coaches that made Sacred Heart. I loved working with such people, and Sacred Heart had a large core who financially sacrificed selflessly for many, many, many years to provide the absolute best education, the best meals, a clean school, and coaching young athletes. Father Jerry Rogers served as a model for ministry and vocation for me. He is a great visionary for Catholic education. Sacred Heart has been blessed with some phenomenal people who were GREAT LEADERS and TEACHERS whose goal was to keep the school going. Those leaders saw the impact Sacred Heart had on young livers and the culture of the parish. We had parents and teachers who worked the sports gates, organized, and worked concessions, filled the vending machines, chalked the football field, and cleaned the bleachers after games night after night when their own children had graduated many years before.
How do you hope you are remembered? As a servant leader who hopefully made a difference for Sacred Heart School.
Any stories that stand out through the years? Of course, Sacred Heart was responsible for Bonnie becoming my wife for now 39 years. I hired her mid-year in 1979 to replace a resigning teacher. She was to teach 7th and 8th graders English?Social Studies. She was a phenomenal teacher at Sacred Heart for thirteen years before teaching at Northland College. We lived a few blocks from each other growing up and I was their newspapercarrier for a year. I hated their bulldog, Sam. Of course, we have a bulldog as our family pet today. Our son, Simon, graduated from Sacred Heart in 2007, and now our granddaughter attends Holy Trinity School in Fargo. Bonnie has been my unwavering supporter and is my in-house editor for most things I have written. She was a big part of the editing of the Sacred Heart Church Centennial history book as well as the school's Centennial book, and the flood/new school dedication book.
When I started at Sacred Heart, teaching was quite different from today. There were no computers, photocopiers, grading programs or smart boards. The teaching staff had chalk, overhead projectors, filmstrips, mimeograph copies, and wall maps. There was ONE phone line into the school which is still the school number. The playground was the alley between the two school buildings.
When I started in 1979, I met with the former principal one afternoon who greeted me saying how excited she was that one of her former students was going to be taking the reins. She handed me a huge ring of keys, showed me the faculty room where supplies were, and warned me that the public address system (a big gray stand-alone console with all kinds of switches and lights) would get hot and smoke. I shouldn't have it on for very long. She smiled and wished me good luck. I found out the public address system operated on vacuum tubes and old wiring from the 1950s. There was no money for a new PA system, so I would turn it ont, let it warm up, make an announcement, and then shut it off. I would this many times per day. We got a new PA system in 1996 which went with the flood demolition.
The flood of 1997 obviously was the most significant event and our high school students were heroes fighting that flood. The families and staff who stuck with us afterward when we were in a "tin can" (temporary school) for two years were astounding. Watching our old buildings come down and see the new building rise was incredible yet bittersweet. I loved those old buildings.
I could mention so many more stories and events, but there is limited space.
What will you miss the most? The students, the staff, and the parents. Sacred Heart is the symbol of the love of Jesus for His people. It is a unique faith community. God blessed me to have this vocation. I have been blessed with the support of so many.
What are you most proud of from your time at SHS? I am proud that Sacred Heart is still a Pre-K through high school providing an excellent Catholic education. I am happy to have been, in a small way, a part of continuing this wonderful Catholic school tradition for a bright future.
Debbie (Luth) Heitman - Transition from teaching
Current/Past titles: English Language Arts teacher (8th-12th graders) from 2000-2020 , Drama Director, Staff Development Committee Chair, and School Advisory Council faculty representative.
When did you begin teaching at Sacred Heart? I began my teaching career at Sacred Heart in 2000. I wanted to teach where I could openly share my faith in Jesus Christ and challenge my students to do their best.
What are your post Sacred Heart School plans? I am taking a break from teaching high school to raise our precious daughter, Grace.
What have you enjoyed most about teaching? Hands down, my favorite thing about teaching has always been my students. I love their energy, creativity, humor, and beautiful uniqueness. I never had a boring day in 20 solid years of teaching. What a blessing to be able to watch 13 year olds learn, grow, and mature before your very eyes into adults walking across the graduation stage.
How do you hope you are remembered? I hope that I will be remembered as being effective. It is important to me that students leave my classes having the skills they need for their years ahead. I hope they found me strict but fair.
What will you miss the most? I miss seeing students and fellow faculty every day. With this COVID year, I have particularly missed being able to be at all the games, concerts, events, and graduation.
What are you most proud of from your time at SHS? I am thankful and proud to say that after 20 years at Sacred Heart, I am still smiling--delighted in my students, my colleagues, and my work. I love teaching and deeply loved directing theater. I have so many fond memories from countless hours in the auditorium with cast and crew. They always made me so proud of them. I treasure each production. I truly care about these teens and delight in seeing and hearing from alumni about their lives.
