Old-school teacher set for new beginning
Melinda Zemba retiring after 30 years
By Mike D’Agruma
BATH — The days of teaching are coming to a close
for fifth-grade teacher Melinda Zemba — the days
of students being able to tell Zemba’s in the
building by finding the car with the ALOHA 7 license
plate in the teacher’s parking lot; the days of
classroom luaus, plays, toga parties, jousts and other
creative inventions geared to stimulate learning; and
the days of coming to school to not only work alongside
the familiar faces of other veteran teachers, but younger
educators better remembered from the time they spent
sitting in one of the small desks as students under
her charge.
All that will end Dec. 21, as the veteran Bath Elementary School teacher will retire, capping a teaching legacy that spanned 30 years and included about 2,000 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students.
“Tearing away from the
kids will be really difficult,” Zemba said. “I’ll
definitely have tears because I’ll miss the
kids so much. The teachers my age all say the same thing
— they’ll miss the children.”
A product of the Revere Local
Schools District and a 1968 graduate of Revere High
School, Zemba found a permanent home after joining the
staff of Bath Elementary in 1977.
She considers herself an old-school
teacher living in a new-school world, one where a teacher’s
creativity has been forced to give way to a more test-driven
environment. Despite this, Zemba said not a stressful
day goes by where she isn’t thankful for having
had the opportunity to teach in the Revere school system
with educators both old and young
that she said are passionate and enthusiastic.
“It was a dream come true;
I really enjoyed the school system, and I never thought
I’d get in,” Zemba said. “I love this
area.”
One passionate, enthusiastic
and longtime educator sad to see Zemba go is Bath Elementary
Principal Fred Tomei. A 33-year veteran himself, he
and Zemba have a long-standing history of working side-by-side
in the educational trenches — sometimes literally.
A former teacher, Tomei said he really got to know his
colleague when the two were both on the district’s
labor negotiating team representing their respective
Revere schools.
But it wasn’t until Tomei
stood on the other side of the fence as an administrator
that he said he learned to appreciate Zemba and what
she does for her students.
Tomei said he dutifully takes
every single request from parents pleading to get their
fourth-grade child into Zemba’s fifth-grade room,
though the district makes no such concessions.
“She’s a highly sought-after
teacher,” Tomei said. “And I know, since
I take the calls.”
Now that Zemba will be spending
her time with family, making treks to the 11 states
she hasn’t visited and pursuing possible
business ventures, those calls
may start going to three fourth-grade protégé
teachers that Zemba better remembers from days when
they were bubbly students participating in her plays
and Revere Heritage Day activities. Tomei said Bath
alums that had Zemba as a teacher and now want to work
with her toward a common interest is nothing new. He
said these teachers are examples of how Zemba has written
herself into the history of Bath Elementary.
To celebrate that history, and
to express appreciation for all her former students,
Zemba is planning a creative goodbye bash that takes
its cues from her old- school
roots. Zemba is having a Hawaiian-themed party. Not
only does the event revolve around a traveling passion,
Zemba said it harkens back to the days when she would
have luaus in her classroom to give her students hands-on
instruction of the diverse culture she loves.
Zemba said the party is meant
solely for her former students, who will be greeted
with blown-up pictures and other keepsakes reminiscent
of past times. Since Tomei obviously never had Zemba
as an instructor, he isn’t on the official invite
list. But with the hordes of students he said are coming
out of the woodwork for the event,
he’ll probably make a point to crash it.
Though the district is planning
a nice evening for Zemba at Rustic Hills Country Club
Dec. 12, Tomei said the student party speaks more to
her individualism and the effect she had on the community.
“The response itself is
testimony to the kind of person she is and the legacy
she’s leaving,” Tomei said. “People
like her — you never replace them.”
Zemba’s student reception
will take place Dec. 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Bath Elementary.
Former students are asked to e-mail Zemba at mzemba@
revere.k12.oh.us by
Dec. 11 if they plan to attend. Notes of memories and
current photos are requested.
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