Familiar face no longer there

Zimmerly Elementary School secretary Jacque Reeves is cleaning out her desk, shredding papers and tidying up the front office in what she calls typical, end-of-the-year type stuff. Only she won’t be coming back next year.

Reeves’ retirement is one of several in the school district this year.

“It’s always difficult to lose those teachers with years and years of experience,” Interim Superintendent Vanetta Perry said. “Their contributions to the district are invaluable. It’s difficult to see them go, but we also celebrate that they have spent 25 to 35 years with us.”

Reeves has spent a total of 28 years working for schools in this area, including 22 with Socorro Consolidated Schools. She hasn’t always been a teacher, but she’s always been good at dealing with kids, parents and the other teachers with whom she’s worked, according to coworkers.

“I was in the computer lab and reading lab before I took this position here in the front,” says Reeves, whose last day is June 15. “I like to visit with the kids and enjoy just seeing how their day’s going and welcoming them in the morning when they come.

“Some of them come tardy and I just kind of try to remind them that you need to get here on time because school is important and that the very beginning of the day is when you get all your (stuff) started off.”

After her husband, a farmer, moved the family to San Antonio, N.M., Reeves started her career in education there since it was the school her children attended.

“And then the enrollment dropped out there so I was transferred to Socorro Schools,” she said. “I’ve been at Zimmerly ever since.”

Reeves began her tenure at Zimmerly Elementary long before the building that now houses fourth and fifth grade was constructed. At that time, the school was an open complex where separate pods contained classrooms.

Then, all the teachers and students were moved to the old complex at San Miguel Catholic Church so the new school could be built. Reeves has been through all of that.

She’s also been through a multitude of administrators. When asked how the schools have changed since she first started working at Zimmerly, she listed off the names of several principals with whom she’s worked over the years.

“My first year here in the office we had a new principal that came in to us from Oklahoma,” she said. “His name was Dwight Meyers, and I very much appreciated his help because he had so much experience (being a principal and superintendent) in Oklahoma, so that when he came here he was a lot of help for me.”

Ask her coworkers, and you’ll realize Reeves helps anyone who needs it. She aided many a new teacher through their first year.

“When I came to Zimmerly, she was the one that saw me through,” said Jody Malloy, a coworker at Zimmerly.

Many of her coworkers consider Reeves to be their rock, saying that when you saw her, you knew you would have a good day.

“Jacque was an asset to our school,” said Mary Spear, another coworker. “I’m very sad to see her go because I liked her and you could trust her,” she said. “Jacque is very trustworthy.”

Also, you can trust that she will enjoy her retirement.

“I can’t think of anything,” she said with a laugh, when asked whether there was anything she wasn’t looking forward to. “(I am looking forward to) spending time with family. I want to help my mom and dad a lot.

“They’re, of course, getting older, like we all are everyday, but I just want to be able to help them more; spend time at home doing things I enjoy — yard work and things like that.

“And, if it was a possibility, my husband works at Bosque del Apache, and they have a volunteer system over there, and it would be nice to do volunteer work. I would enjoy that.”

She says she’s also looking forward to spending more time with her church where she is the treasure at Socorro Baptist Temple.

“I’m going to miss so many (people),” she said. “I’ll miss a lot of the kids — well, all the kids, and the staff. (Not seeing them everyday is) going to be tough, but (retirement will) be nice.”