Teacher hits milestone

Three generations have learned from Miss Pierce, By Cindy Weightman Franklin — Judy Pierce has spent the last 31 years teaching in the borough she’s always called home. Born and raised in Franklin, she lives right down the street from the house she grew up in and she’s not alone. A sister also still calls the borough home and Pierce says she has plenty of family living in Franklin and in neighboring Hamburg. “All local,” she says. “I guess we all like it that way.” This year, Pierce has reached a milestone. She has now taught three generations of students from one local family. “I don’t know if it’s ever happened before,” Pierce says but it’s a first for her. She’s taught the grandfather and mother of one of her current second-grade students, Olivia Krieger. Pierce says Franklin’s small town feel is what she likes most about living here and that includes running into her students and their families when she’s out around the town. She reminisces about a time when the ShopRite was a farm where she would go to feed horses, when the milk man would come by with his bottles and there was a bread man too. “The values have changed a little bit,” she adds. “It’s still a family atmosphere, but everyone was even closer back then. Everybody knew everybody’s business. And now we don’t.” Pierce has taught all but four grades in the former K-12 district. She began teaching in the high school shortly after graduating from William Paterson College in 1978. (It’s a university now.) Things change But Pierce says many things have changed over the years in both Franklin and its school system. For one thing, there’s an elevator in the area that in her day was the principal’s office. The school used to be more of a regional school with students coming from Ogdensburg, Hardyston, Jefferson, Vernon and Hamburg. “The high school classes were upstairs and the younger kids were downstairs. Split sessions were the norm with the students attending either the morning or afternoon session and when Pierce’s class graduated in 1974 with 209 students, she says, it was the second largest in the school’s history. According to the school’s Web site, the largest graduating class was the Class of 1972 with 240 students. The high school closed in 1982 when Wallkill Valley Regional High School opened. The kids seem more advanced today and Pierce credits technology for that. “What I teach my second-graders now...I never learned ‘til fourth- or fifth-grade. They’re multiplying. It’s more word problems, problem solving. It’s amazing.” And, the reading program has also changed over the years. When she was a student, everyone would read from one book, regardless of their level. Now she says, there’s a book for every level and the reading groups are much smaller, sometimes only containing two students. It seems, too, that money is tighter now. Pierce recalls that when she taught seventh-grade, she was given a budget of $1,200. Now it’s only $450, but Pierce says the close-knit staff shares supplies and everyone pinches pennies to get the students what they need. Some things are the same The area is as safe as ever, she adds, but now there’s a lockdown drill in addition to the customary fire drills. The school caught fire on at least one occasion while Pierce was a student. “I remember I was in the 10th grade and the older kids helped move books and chairs to the gym for class. The Annex was off limits. That’s where I’m teaching now so it’s all fixed,” she jokes. Another thing that remains the same: Her love of teaching. Even after all of these years. “I like to see their face light up when they understand something they’ve struggled with. I like to see the lightbulb go off. It just amazes me,” Pierce says. “It’s tiring but it’s real worth it. Just to see the kids playing, learning and having fun.”

Talking about the large tree in front of the school, Pierce says: “It seems to me like Franklin school and that oak tree have been there since the beginning of time.”