TEACHER DEVOTED FOR 48 YEARS RETIRING, SHIRLEY RICHARDS MADE GREAT THINGS HAPPEN IN CLASSROOM.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- For the first time in nearly 50 years, Sunnydale School kindergarten teacher Shirley Richards will not have to worry about lesson plans, school supplies or whether a pupil needs shoes.

Lancaster School District's longest-serving employee -- who has taught two generations of some families -- is retiring from a career that began in 1958, when she earned $5,000 a year.

``She is just an A-plus teacher always. She puts children first. She makes sure they learn,'' Principal Jean Youngquist said. ``The thing she does best is that she makes sure that those around her succeed. She sets up people for success, her students especially, then she retreats and just watches them shine. She's an incredible asset at Sunnydale.''

Richards, 70, graduated from Hanford High School and from what is now California State University, Fresno, and she received a master's degree from what was later known as Point Loma College.

Her first teaching job was in 1957 in Kit Carson Union School District in Hanford, which is 35 miles southwest of Fresno, and her annual salary was $1,950.

``We wore only dresses,'' Richards recalled.

She came to the Lancaster School District in 1958 after hearing from a colleague's brother who lived in Lancaster and knew teachers there.

She and the other teacher visited the brother a couple of times and decided to apply for teaching jobs in Lancaster.

Her first job was teaching third grade at El Dorado School, then brand new.

``Lancaster was growing fast. It was a time when parents invited you to their homes,'' Richards said. ``Then there was a closeness between parents and teachers, but the school district was smaller, and the town was smaller.''

She went on to teach at Linda Verde, Sunnydale and Park View schools, and then she returned in 1973 to Sunnydale, where she has been named the school's Teacher of the Year several times. She took half a year off when her daughter was born in 1963.

At Sunnydale, she taught first and third grades and then moved to kindergarten four years ago because, as she has told people, ``You know, people who retire from kindergarten really look good and young, so I'm going to go teach kindergarten.

``There wasn't the pressure. Now there's a lot of pressure in kindergarten,'' Richards said.

The pressure on pupils to perform is one of the biggest changes she has seen in education.

``A lot is expected of them, but for children who are capable, they do very well,'' Richards said.

Youngquist said an amazing thing about Richards is that so many parents have wanted to help in her classroom and continue to volunteer in her room after their kids moved on.

``That's how every child in that classroom gets to read. At any given time, there are at least three adults in that classroom,'' Youngquist said. ``On Saturday, one of them was there helping her move out.''

Christine Wuest is one of those parents. She has been helping Richards for 16 years, ever since her son had Richards for a teacher.

``He had her in first grade. He just graduated from college this year,'' Wuest said.

``We were friends. There were several of us. Another woman has helped for 28 years,'' Wuest said. ``(Richards) is very nice, very caring and concerned. Her main focus was we are going to teach those little kids to read. She is very good in trying to get them to read -- and very conscientious. If someone needed something, she would get them shoes at her own expense.''

Richards said help from parents is one reason she didn't retire earlier.

``I've had so much help in my room. Parents who help me today, I had their children. Until this year, one of them had helped me every day; her daughter is in the eighth grade. My helpers all had a child in my room. I kept the parents,'' Richards said. ``They help in the class trememdously. We have a lot of fun laughing. They just remain my friends. I continued on and enjoyed them and the class.''

Richards, whose last day of teaching was Friday, will not remain idle after retirement.

She intends to serve as a substitute teacher when needed in kindergarten and first grade, to go fishing with her husband, Jack, on their boat that they have moored in a Ventura marina, and to continue selling antique collectibles at the Prairie Peddler in Quartz Hill.

``I've been a collector all my life. When I quit teaching, I was going to have an antique shop, but I never quit teaching,'' Richards said.

Richards lives in Lancaster with her husband, who farmed with his father and raised cotton, sugar beets and other row crops and whose hobbies include building and flying airplanes.

Their daughter, Toni, is a manager of a jewelry store in San Diego.

In response to one of her Teacher of the Year nominations, Richards wrote, ``When I come to school, my room is the place in the world where I can make great things happen.'' She also wrote about her joy in smiling at pupils: ``My smile may be the only smile they get that day. It's a place where I touch children's hearts.''

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Shirley Richards, retiring after teaching for 48 years, gives a characteristic smile to her last class -- kindergartners -- at Sunnydale School in the Lancaster School District.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer