Schools to Laud Secretary, 51 Other Retirees

After 25 years with Simi Valley schools, Mary Hartman has seen it all: strikes, layoffs, lawsuits, dress codes, earthquakes and a recent resurgence in enrollment. She has even outlasted three superintendents.

But the administrative secretary to the superintendent--who keeps records at what are often long and contentious school board meetings--is preparing to adjourn to her home, her garden and the road, for family visits.

In her retirement, which begins with the new school year in September, she joins her husband of 10 years, Spencer, who left his job last year at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

“He’s home on the couch with the newspaper and the coffee and the cat when I leave in the morning,” Hartman said. “And it’s getting kind of hard to take.”

Hartman will be honored today, along with 51 other retiring district employees, at a tea at Sequoia Junior High School.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford praised Hartman as an invaluable assistant, and board of trustees President Judy Barry called her “the epitome of an outstanding employee.”

“Mary is so good at what she does,” Barry said. “She is well-organized, a pleasant person. I really consider her a very good friend.”

Three superintendents have come and gone during her tenure, and Wolford recently announced that she will retire in December.

“So if I’d have hung on, I could have gone for a fourth. I’m getting good at getting them to leave,” Hartman quipped.

Born and reared in Wisconsin, she moved to Simi Valley with her young family in 1971.

She gradually worked her way up to her current position after holding several jobs in the district.

Things were different around the district when she first arrived.

“All these people who worked here lived in this little community, and it was really kind of a warm, cozy kind of family thing,” she said.

Now, she said, the issues facing the district seem more complicated. And with a frequent 3-2 split on the board, the jobs of the staff have become more difficult, she said.

“But the board is very fortunate to have a good group of administrators who try to serve their needs,” she said. “After all, our purpose for being here is to help people out in the schools do the best jobs they can.”

Hartman said she plans to spend time in her flower garden, read at her leisure and visit her three grown children, Meganne Gayle Bennett, who lives in Iowa with her husband and three boys; her son, Mark, who is in the Navy in Hawaii, and daughter Beth Leiberg, who lives in Northern California with her young son and fiancee.