Her’s is a legacy few can claim
Most school officials have an impact on the lives of the students they encounter over the years. Long after their professional careers have begun, students can quickly recall the names of their favorite teachers and which grade they taught in. They can recount specific instances of when the actions of those teachers helped them overcome a problem. They can remember with affection the compassion of a particular teacher or school administrator. The blessings of watching impressionable children grow into adults year after year is perhaps the greatest of joys that every school official – teachers, principals and support personnel – has when it comes time to retire.
Those legacies of educators live on long after their careers have been completed. They become the fodder of dinner table conversations between old friends recalling their years growing up and going to school. They are imbedded in the very fabric of our communities.
But only a few educators ever have the chance to be a part of a career-shaping change as significant as the one experienced by Melissa Harrison.
Next month, Harrison will end her 31-year career in education. She will not be the only teacher or school official who will be retiring at the end of this school year. There will be others. But Harrison can point with pride to a legacy unlike that experienced by others: She has spent her final two decades watching the Tharptown school system blossom from a junior high school to one of the fastest growing educational institutions in Franklin County.
You see, Harrison is just one of two Tharptown school officials who have been with the high school from the very beginning of its transition from a junior high to a high school. The other is Secretary Christy Gill, who is not retiring.
Harrison has spent 20 years as the school’s librarian, watching the school and its students grow and thrive with every passing year.
“Starting the new school was a lot of fun,” Harrison admitted last week, “but there was a lot of pressure too because everything we did was a first for the school.” Those firsts are the true elements of educational legacies. And Harrison has lived through them all for the entire existence of Tharptown High. For that reason, her legacy will be a special one – a legacy that only one other will be able to claim.
“Her love and willingness to help make this school better is the legacy I think she’ll leave behind,” said her friend, Gill. “I’m going to miss her not being here every day, but I’m happy for her at the same time.”
For Harrison, she wishes only that great things continue to unfold for the school and community she has come to love and claim as her own.
“I hope the school continues to grow the way it is,” she said. “I hope they get more classrooms, more facilities and things like … this community deserve to have more.
“I truly have been blessed to be in a place where everyone loves each other,” Harrison added. “I love these students and I love this community and it has all just been such a big blessing in my life to be here.”
Those blessings, we’re sure, flowed both ways. The school, its students and the community will be a better place because of the legacy Melissa Harrison will leave behind.
