Salute to retiring educators

Lexington 4: The end of an era at Swansea High

By DEVON COPELAND - dcopeland@thestate.com

Joye Hoffman can still remember the days following the Dec. 29, 1976 fire that destroyed the old Swansea High building.

Not just because it took the staff days to sort through records, brushing off the singed edges of student files.

But because she’d made students leave their workbooks at school to ensure they didn’t lose them over winter break.

Hoffman had no idea she would be the one to blame for “losing” the books.

“They did not ever let me forget that,” she said before laughing.

Hoffman will retire at the end of the school year after spending her entire 40-year teaching career at Swansea High.

Her departure will mark the end of an era, principal Robert Maddox said.

Hoffman is the last remaining teacher to have taught in the old Swansea High building.

Maddox called it impossible to find someone with her connection to the community, her experience and her attitude and approach to teaching.

“There is no replacement for her,” he said.

Hoffman said she was lucky to find her niche in math, having stumbled into it during her senior year in high school.

That year she had a math teacher who’d formerly worked as an engineer.

She said he wasn’t good at explaining to a group but was excellent with one-on-one instruction, so they worked out a deal.

“He’d show me in the morning, then he’d get me to show everybody (during class),” she said.

Now, Hoffman said she’s ready to retire. She plans to travel with her family and work in her yard.

But she said she’ll miss her students and the energy she “zapped” from them.

She said although she hopes they remember their algebraic equations and the Pythagorean theorem, she hopes all her students have learned to be prepared for possibilities.

“I’d like for them to know that if it should happen that they want to go into (a math-centered career), a door won’t be closed to them because they’re not prepared.”

Reach Copeland at (803) 771-8485.