It’s hard to say goodbye.
Last week, Millard School Board members celebrated nine retiring educators—teachers, bus drivers, maintenance workers, all educators, all beloved—as they ended one chapter of their lives and started another.
Call it the “other” class of 2022, representing almost 300 years of collective experience in local schools. Here are their snapshots, a final goodbye to those who spent a career ensuring the district fosters the best educational experience possible for the kids of Millard County communities.
Ruth Corbridge
Ruth Corbridge has been a valued and important part of the special education program in Millard School District for the past 25 years. She has had the opportunity to work at Fillmore Elementary, Fillmore Middle School, and Millard High School.
Over the years she has provided service to some of the community’s most vulnerable students. She is skilled in the use of cued speech, which is a special method of communication that facilitates understanding and use by people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
She has been a very loyal and dependable employee and has shown care and compassion as she has interacted with our students. These, along with many other great skills and attributes, have made her an integral part of our schools and have been vital to the success of our students. Corbridge will be missed but we wish her the very best in her retirement.
Bill Emmett
Bill Emmett is retiring from Millard School District after 31 years.
He started his career as a Custodian at Millard High School and later was promoted to Head Custodian.
In 2015, he interviewed and was selected to be a Maintenance Specialist. In this capacity, he used his talents in fixing just about everything. He really is remarkable at the many things he can do. Bill never complains and always accepts responsibilities even when they are not the most pleasing of circumstances.
Bill has always been willing to interact with co-workers, custodians, and staff. He goes above and beyond the call of duty and his work is above standard.
After retirement, Bill plans to spend time with his wife, Barbara, who is recently retired and with his family and grandkids. We hope he will enjoy his hobbies, such as gardening, four-wheeling, and being in the outdoors. We appreciate him for all the dedicated service and knowledge he has shared with us. He will truly be missed.
Clyde Habel
Clyde Habel has worked for the Millard School District as a Warehouse Worker for 28 years.
Clyde’s main responsibility was to receive orders at the warehouse and to deliver food and supplies to the kitchens at all the schools. However, there are many things he does behind the scenes that most people don’t see.
Clyde has an outstanding work ethic. If something needs to be done, Clyde will do the job 110 percent and he won’t stop until he finishes what he started. Whenever something is needed in a school, he quickly answers the call. Knowing we can depend on him has made it easier to feed the students in the district.
Clyde has been good at his job because he pays attention to the little things. He always knows the inventory counts when asked. He will quickly deliver to schools when they are short items for meals. He has a method to every job he performs.
This year in all the madness of supply chain issues, we received copy paper and garbage bags after school had already started. With the late shipment, Clyde was told to just drop the cases at the schools and the school staff would have to put them away this year. With panic seen on his face when he was told this, we knew that leaving a job halfway completed just isn’t who Clyde is. He delivered and put them away for the schools.
Clyde has magician skills when it comes to fitting food inside a freezer and still being able to get a forklift in and out when he needs to.
Things will be different without Clyde at the warehouse, but we wish him the best as he enters retirement.
Janeen Hare
Janeen Hare has been a successful employee of Millard School District for the past 34 years. Her work as a teacher in special education has had a profound impact on the lives of her students. She has a tremendous capacity to understand young people and to provide the support, encouragement, and assistance they frequently need, both in school and in life.
Over the years, students have consistently sought her help and have benefited from her skills as a teacher, her knowledge of subjects, and her desire to assist in the learning process. Mrs. Hare has also been a valued colleague and friend to those around her. She has served as a mentor for younger teachers and a support to any who needed her assistance.
Mrs. Hare and her wealth of knowledge and experience will be missed but we wish her and her family the very best.
Rhonda Harrison
Miss H. has been in education for 40 years. She came to Delta to student teach and has been here ever since.
Her career started in Delta Middle School teaching 5th grade. She then had the opportunity to fulfill several roles, teaching a variety of subjects, including 7th grade, 8th grade, Drama, English, Utah History, PE, Business and Marketing TLC, and a wide variety of other elective subjects.
While teaching at Delta Middle School, she also served as Vice Principal. In 2001-2002, she left the middle school to be the Principal at Fillmore Elementary. In 2014, her next assignment was the Delta Early Childhood Center, where she taught kindergarten for a year until first and second grade was added to become Delta South Elementary.
She served as the Millard Education Association President, on the UEA Board of Directors, the Rural Schools Board, and as a director in UAESP and has participated in many other professional development opportunities. She is meticulous with details and has an outstanding work ethic.
We have been so immensely fortunate to have her working within our district. She has touched the lives of so many students, staff, and faculty as she is the only administrator that has worked in multiple schools within our district (including Delta & Fillmore schools). We will truly miss her infectious laugh and personality. Happy retirement Miss Harrison!
Sandra Health
After being at the wheel of school buses for 25 years, Mrs. Sandra Health, a Millard School District bus driver, will be retiring from transporting students to and from school each day. She was first hired as a substitute bus driver and a couple years later hired as a full-time driver. She drove a Kindergarten route, later adding morning and afternoon routes to her schedule. She also has taken activity trips and always enjoyed driving students and watching them compete, perform, and learn.
Sandra has exhibited an outstanding work ethic and displayed genuine care and concern for her students. She rarely missed a day to bring them to school or turned down an activity or field trip. Sandra has logged thousands of miles in the district’s buses and has done it safely over the years. Her coworkers and students will miss her as she opens this new chapter of her life.
In her retirement, she will no doubt enjoy spending time with her family, and best of all, watching her grandchildren. We all wish her the best.
Tracy Keel
Tracy Keel started teaching at Millard High School in the fall of 1987 and has taught for 35 years. He graduated from Millard High in 1979, served a mission to Seoul, Korea, and then attended Southern Utah State College, graduating with a teaching degree in Physical Education with minors in History and Health.
His love was teaching History. He has taught World Civilizations, Geography, and Drivers Education. He later received his master’s degree in education from Southern Utah University. He has been teaching driver’s education and driving students for 17 years.
Mr. Keel will always be known for the teacher who had high expectations in his classroom. He is the teacher that introduced students to the world, both geographically as well as culturally. The most enjoyment was teaching children of students he taught when he first started his career. During his 35 years, he has also coached the Girls Tennis, Boys Golf and Track, and enjoyed all of it.
His retirement plan is to Golf as much as he can. He enjoys spending time with his four children (three of whom are now teachers) and his six grandchildren.
Vickie Larsen
Mrs. Vickie Larsen is retiring from Fillmore Middle School this year after a 29-year career. She started her adventure here in 1993 as a Title 1 aide. After that, she was hired on as a sixth grade teacher, and she taught it for the next 12 years. Her thirteenth year of teaching, she taught a split 5th / 6th grade class, and yes, it is as challenging as it sounds. Afterwards, she remained in fifth grade and has taught there ever since.
When she and her husband Eric were dating, they went to a young adult skeet shoot and she found out she was a great shot to boot. When she mentioned that it was her first-time skeet shooting, some of the guys were mortified. Mrs. Larsen and her husband Eric have raised four wonderful children (Jaren, Kendra, Heather, and ShaRee). They also have 13 grandchildren!
She enjoys spending time outdoors— target shooting, riding wave runners, four-wheeling, boating while pulling grandkids on water toys at the lake and enjoying the scenic routes through the mountains and desert from her Jeep.
Kevin Singleton
After 38 years of teaching, Mr. Kevin Singleton has decided to retire (a year after his wife Mary retired, he saw how much fun she was having without him!!)
Kevin graduated from Southern Utah State College (now SUU) in 1984. He taught PE and coached football and baseball at Parowan High School. In 1985, he moved to Delta. He was hired to teach Geography and driver’s education at Delta High School. He soon was coaching wrestling, football, and baseball. He enjoyed that for many years.
Kevin has impacted more lives than he even realizes. He has a heart of gold and his infectious laugh and personality will certainly be missed along with his “hey pal” or “how ya doing” greetings!
Kevin and his wife Mary have four children and six grandchildren. He plans to travel the world and we’re sure it will include attending a few sporting event and concerts, too.
Happy retirement Mr. Singleton! We will sure miss you! Best wished on a fun-filled retirement! You deserve it buddy!
