A new semester is not only a time of change for students, but for teachers as well.  But instead of coordinating lesson plans and grading papers, two South High veterans are shifting their roles in the school as they retire.  Neil Anderson, a social studies teacher, and Mr. Musich, an educator integral to the partnership program at South, will be taking on changing responsibilities.

“My retirement is that I retired from the classroom at the end of semester,” Anderson explained, “it will be totally from the district as of June 5th.”  Until then, he is assisting with this year’s senior graduation.

When talking about future plans, Anderson said, “I hope to coach at a Youth Golf Academy in the summer and to do a lot of fishing and golfing.”

Anderson’s departure ends a decades-long association with South because, he said, “I’ve been here since 1972 because I graduated from South.”  What will he miss from the school?  “Probably the most would be the kids.  They have always been about learning and doing the best that they can do.”

Musich’s situation, he said, is “I retired as of the sixteenth of January so that Mr. Gay could start working by the eighteenth and accrue tenure.”  His plans for the far future was summed up in one word, “Death, everyone has term limits.”

But joking aside, he said, “In between that, I’m trying to see if I could develop my cartooning and storytelling skills.  I think that the use of arts in education is really important, so I’d like to put energy into making it grow.”  After a pause, he added, “And read comic books.”

Musich will miss is “the energy, in a word.  It makes education possible and makes learning possible.  Also, the neverending story, everything’s to be continued always and I like that and I like the unpredictability.”

In seeing these two educators depart, these teacher’s view of South and especially their students has reciprocated the influence that they had on the countless high schoolers that passed through their tutelage.