11-18-2022 4:33am

Who Says You Can't Go Home? BASH Alums Sustain Boyertown's Tradition of Educational Excellence.

Lesley Misko Editor

The senior portraits of a handful of the many Boyertown Area Senior High graduates who work in our schools.

[ Click below to watch the video. ]

Each year, Boyertown Area Senior High (BASH) graduates move on to a new path. Some join the military. Others pursue additional education or join the workforce. Often their chosen path takes them far from home, and once they relocate, they put down roots and start their own family, coming back to the Boyertown area only to visit.

However, much like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz, some BASH alums realize that "there is no place like home." They remain in the Boyertown area to pursue their goals or leave and then return to Boyertown, serving the community in a range of roles.

Such is the case for quite a few BASD employees. Their unique perspective –working in the very same classrooms where they once sat as students—allows them not only to sustain important traditions, but also to continue the strong ties between our schools and the Boyertown community which supports the current generations of students.

“I actually started working for the school district when I was in eighth grade,” recalls Jeff Lucarelli, a BASH Class of 1981 graduate who now serves as the head custodian at Washington Elementary School. “When I graduated, they hired me full time…I never left school!”

To celebrate the end of American Education Week, we are honored to share a video with you that highlights Boyertown area graduates who have made contributing to the local education community their life's work. Clearly, their work is a "labor of love" for their hometown.

Shelley (Grofe) Livelsberger, BASH Class of 1979, works as a health and physical education teacher at Middle School West. Reflecting on her decision to return to Boyertown and teach, she says, “I had so many great teachers that influenced me to become the teacher that I am, and I just wanted to add back to our community.”

A sixth-grade teacher at Middle School West and BASH class of 2008 graduate, John Hazel echoes this sentiment. He describes, “The main reason that I came to Boyertown was coming home. I wanted to be here. I wanted to be in Boyertown and this was always number one on my list,” Hazel says, underscoring “there was no number two.”

Stephanie (Smith) Landis, principal at Middle School West, graduated from BASH in 1988. She recalls, “I always loved my own experiences as a student in the district and it was kind of a dream of mine from the time that I was in college that I wanted to come back to Boyertown.”

Other school district employees offer similar explanations: “I was born here. My husband was born here. It was really important for us to stay here and raise our kids here. It just feels like small town home,” says Kimberly (Callahan) Cantlin, a BASH cafeteria worker who graduated in 2007.

Summarizing the joy shared by the BASH alumni employed by the school district, class of 2010 graduate Kristen Glod-Wetzel, a learning support teacher at Earl Elementary, emphasizes, “It’s fun to teach at the school I went to because I feel I’m impacting the next generation of kids…I just think it feels like home.”

[Appreciation to Mr. William Cherkasky, telecommunications teacher, and his student intern, Faith Williams, for creating and sharing this video.]