Debbie Andry, the FACS teacher at PHS, plans to retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year. She has been working as a teacher for 37 years. Not only has she been the FACS teacher for 10 years, but she was also the special education teacher for 27 years prior. Before working at Paoli, she started her teaching career in 1979 as a teacher at West Washington where she taught for one year.
Amdry has enjoyed her time as a teacher and hopes to continue to contribute to the community. When looking back on her career, she is proud of how she’s done, and she feels like she has truly made a difference. She enjoyed the moments when students realize they can do something they did not think they could, and seeing them become better people. She feels most people who enter her class do not know how to do skills like cooking, laundry, and banking.
“I feel like I’ve held them accountable, like I’ve really helped them grow,” said Andry.
Outside of school, she is a very active person and is always doing something hands-on. Some of her favorite things to do are to quilt, sew, visit her children and grandchildren, and garden. Despite not being able to keep a vegetable garden alive, she loves flower gardens and admiring the bright and pretty colors.
Although she is excited for this next chapter in her life, she both nervous and excited about what the future holds. She is nervous about the transition and not having the routine that she has now, and how she will fill her time.
Since she is a believer in continuing to learn, Andry hopes to continue helping the community by starting classes to teach adults to cook, sew, and volunteering her time in the community to give people opportunities they might not have been able to get otherwise. She is also considering showcasing her quilts and embroidering. She may also sell the items she sews if people are interested in buying them.
Andry and her husband Phil hope to be able to travel, just the two of them, more than they do now. Since they will both be free, they would like to travel to Europe to experience it. They also want to travel to other countries, but Europe is at the top of their list. Overall, she wants to spend more time with her family and wants to continue to be active, because she gets so bored if she’s just sitting around.
One of Andry’s big pieces of advice is “love what you do, and you won’t work a day in your life”. Even though that is very popular advice, she thinks it is especially true for teachers. Her favorite piece of advice she has received is:
“We are teaching the people that will take care of us, so think about how you want to be taken care of in the future,” said Andry.
Andry recommends becoming a teacher if that is something you’re passionate about. Although it gets hard at times, it is real and it is fun, and it is a very rewarding job.