“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

“It’s not goodbye, it’s see ya later.”

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

However you choose to put it – leaving is never easy, even for the staff members who have chosen to retire this year from MCPS and Paint Branch. This year, PB says goodbye and thank you for all of your hard work and commitment to six staff members: Mrs. Pat Gafford, Ms. Gloria Cottman, Mrs. Barbara Britton, Ms. Geraldine Finch, Mrs. Donna Weber, and Ms. Marla Frenzel.

Combined, these six have given Montgomery County Public Schools over 140 years of service. Leading the way is Mrs. Gafford, who put in thirty-seven and a half years for the county. As for what she considers her most important takeaway from her career, Mrs. Gafford notes, “Facilitating the success of my students will always remain with me as the most important work I have done during my 43 years in education.” Mrs. Gafford also notes her work on PB’s Accreditation for Growth and a $670,000 five-year grant for Smaller Learning Communities.

Mrs. Britton can’t leave without a shout out to those whom she has worked closest here at PB, the Special Education Department. “They do more than go above and beyond the call of duty to help our needier children.  I am very proud to have had the experience of working with them.  They don’t do too badly in the lunches they have put on in the past either.  My people represent!”

Ms. Cottman and Ms. Frenzel both note that they will remember those they worked closest with and the good times they had at PB. Of this, Mrs. Frenzel says, “all of the people I’ve worked with and all of the students I’ve helped over the years,” are what she will recall most fondly.