NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee recently recognized the service of two Northfield Elementary School staff members, Lisa Wheeler and Deb Porlier, who retired at the end of the school year.
“NES is losing two remarkable women — Deb Porlier [and] Lisa Wheeler. Thank you for your service to our children. Thank you for your service to our families,” Superintendent Patricia Kinsella told the retirees during last week’s School Committee meeting. “We will miss you greatly, and we wish you the very best as you enter this next chapter.”
Lisa Wheeler
After 31 years of teaching first grade at Northfield Elementary, Lisa Wheeler’s daughter, Katie Wheeler, said her mother has been an inspiration not only to her, but to all the students she has taught over the years.
“I was asked to say a few words today to recognize my mom’s 31 years of service in education, but as I sat down to write this, I kept asking myself, ‘How do you possibly summarize 31 years?’” said Katie Wheeler, who followed in her mother’s footsteps by becoming a teacher for second grade at Sheffield Elementary School. “Thirty-one years of changing lives, building relationships, navigating challenges, celebrating successes, and showing up day after day with children and families who aren’t even your own.”
Katie Wheeler spoke to the impact her mother has had on her students. When she was growing up, whenever they went to the grocery store or to get ice cream, they would be stopped by current students and former students wanting to say hello.
“As a teenager and a child, I found it quite annoying. But now, I find it quite incredible. As I follow in her footsteps and begin my own career in education, I’ve come to realize just how much of an impact one person can have,” Katie Wheeler continued. “In just 180 short days, a teacher can change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
Katie Wheeler said Lisa Wheeler has always approached education with compassion, energy, patience and resilience, treating her students with kindness and enthusiasm.
Lisa Wheeler called working at Northfield Elementary “a fabulous journey” and said it was a particularly special experience to teach at the school while her children attended.
“It’s a place where I was able to bring my own children while teaching there, and watching them fulfill their lives and becoming educators and their careers going forth,” Lisa Wheeler said. “I appreciate all that NES has given me over the years, a home … and it’s always going to have a special place in my heart.”
Deborah Porlier
Porlier has served as Northfield Elementary’s cafeteria manager for the past four years and was described by Food Services Director Cheryl Brown as someone who can “hold down the fort” all by herself.
“I’ve had the wonderful pleasure of working with Deb for the last four years in the Northfield Food Services. She has been a pleasure to work with,” Brown said. “She’s been really great.”
Kinsella added that Porlier has been “dear to the district,” and she is sad to see her go.
Brown said she hopes Porlier enjoys her retirement and spending time in her garden.
Porlier joked that she would finally have time to try out recipes for herself, not just cook dishes that are on the school menu, and she would have to drop off some of the treats she makes for the school’s staff.
“I guess I’ll be able to pull out my cookbooks and baking books,” Porlier said, “and start to do fun stuff, and probably drop it off to everybody, because I really don’t want to eat it all.”
