As the Class of 2024’s high school career comes to an end, so do those of some of their teachers.
Lisa Del Pizzo, science teacher, has been teaching for 29 years at MHS and is among, as of now, six teachers retiring after this school year.
While Del Pizzo said she treasured her interactions with all her students, her passion extended beyond the traditional classroom, finding fulfillment as the sponsor for the Health Occupational Students of America (HOSA). HOSA helps future health professionals develop essential skills through chapter activities and competitions. Dr. Cathy Farrar will sponsor HOSA after Del Pizzo retires.
“I love taking my HOSA students on fun trips to their international competitions and seeing their successes,” Del Pizzo said. “It’s also always heartening to hear about graduates’ successes in the healthcare industry and knowing I was able to make an impact on them.”
Alongside her, Matt Del Pizzo, social studies teacher, is also retiring. The Del Pizzo’s have been married to each other for 13 years. He has been teaching for 27 years in total, 26 of them being at MHS.
However, he has not always been a teacher. “My previous company went under so I had to consider other options. Since I was a history major, I thought ‘Go become a teacher’,” Matt said. “Great career. You work 180 days a year. You’re gonna have an amazing pension and you get to retire young and live your life.”
He said he is excited to see what this next stage of life brings. He will be returning to coach girls tennis.
“I don’t know what I’m going to miss about teaching because I haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” Matt said.
When reminiscing on his career, he doesn’t see any extremes in terms of good and bad memories.
“You get your job. You have really good days. You have bad days. But you just keep showing up and doing it until you can hopefully retire someday, that’s just life,” Matt said. “There’s nothing that I have really loved or hated. I have always just found my center and tried to stay there.”
Della Thompson, French teacher, found her teaching calling during her time at Washington University (WashU) in St. Louis. French has always been her passion, and teaching became a dream realized. She has been teaching at MHS for 28 years.
“When I worked on getting my Master’s at WashU, I was a teaching assistant, and I liked that better than some of the other things that I did. Then, ever since I started teaching, it’s just been a dream,” Thompson said.
Thompson plans to continue teaching, but not within the conventional classroom; instead, she will be teaching yoga.
She said one of the things she will miss most about teaching is her colleagues, who are like her work family.
“And I’ll miss interacting with the students. I mean, that’s the joy of teaching is getting to know the kids and working with them,” Thompson said.
