The Viking Voice

CHS says goodbye to retiring, moving staff

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 By JORDAN HINTZ-Staff Writer

As the end of the school year is rapidly approaching not only will the seniors be preparing to say goodbye to Coeur d’Alene High School, but some of the staff will be joining them as well. Out of a staff of 67 at Coeur d’Alene High School, this year the school will be saying goodbye to six teachers and a counselor. Abby White, Dale Poffenroth, Dick Kleven, Eileen Gruenwald, Neil Morris, and Paul Danelo will not be back at CHS next year. Abby White, a counselor to this year’s senior class, will be leaving CHS and moving to Boise. “My husband got a great job in Boise so we will be moving down there at the end of June,” White said. “I am very excited because I hear great things about Boise and I am a city person.” White said the hardest part about leaving would be saying goodbye to a great community and that she would miss teachers, students and relationships that she has made here. Morris, a biomed and biology teacher, will be leaving his teaching days at CHS to go to school in Spokane and pursue Physical Therapy. “I have been interested in Physical Therapy for many years and have always wanted to pursue it,” Morris said. According to Morris he does not plan on teaching again, but he will miss building relationships and teaching at CHS. “I will be leaving CHS with very good memories,” Morris said. “Morris made a great impact on me,” Hailey Peters-Clark, junior, said. “He is a fantastic teacher that really knows what he is doing.” Poffenroth, Kleven, Gruenwald, and Danelo, all math teachers, will be ending their teaching days at CHS and retiring at the end of this year. “It will be hard because I will miss the respectful students,” Danelo said. “But once I retire I plan on riding my Harley until it runs out of gas.” Although Poffenroth is retiring, he will still be back at CHS coaching girls’ basketball next year. “I will still be coaching next year and I plan on getting the girls team to state,” Poffenroth said. “But once I retire I want to do volunteer financial counseling in my free time.” Poffenroth also said that once he retires he will be able to enjoy spending more time gardening, planting petunias and watching basketball. “I have been teaching for eight years,” Poffenroth said. “I will miss the kids the most. The everyday contact that I had with them was my favorite part of being a teacher.”