• District honors nine employees retiring this school year

    retJim Shaffer’s first job at Bellefonte Area School District was cleaning lockers. The longtime custodian retired this year after 33 years of service at the district -- calling it “the greatest move” of his career.

    Shaffer, who worked at Pleasant Gap Elementary School, was joined on the afternoon of June 3 with a group of other individuals from the district who are retiring.

    “I always loved coming to work, especially working with kids,” Shaffer said. “I don’t care how down it looks for the day, when you’re with kids it all makes it worthwhile and that’s something I’m really going to miss.”

    The district held a ceremony at Bellefonte Area High School for the nine retiring individuals – three who were in attendance: Shaffer, Paul DeMille and Nancy Whyte. This was the second year the district held a formal ceremony for the retirees, which was also catered by the district’s food service department.

    2018-19 retirees

    • Steve Bolich: Fourth-grade teacher at Benner Elementary School, served for 26 years
    • Paul DeMille: Technology support manager, served for 18 years
    • James DeVier: Van driver for Bellefonte Area Middle School, served for 8 years
    • John Perryman: Custodian at Bellefonte Area High School, served for 6 years
    • Charles Riglin: Custodian at Bellefonte Area High School, served for 4 years
    • Patsy Roan: Cafeteria worker at Bellefonte Area High School, served for 32.5 years
    • Jim Shaffer: Lead custodian at Pleasant Gap Elementary, served for 33 years
    • Jeanette Sidisky: Cafeteria cashier at Bellefonte Area High School, served for 21.5 years
    • Nancy Whyte: Family and consumer sciences teacher at Bellefonte Area High School, served for 13 years

    *By Brit Milazzo, public relations director, BASD