Central teacher retires (27 May 2006)

By Joe Ruiz
Staff writer

The last week of school at San Angelo Central High School featured Ken Whitley thinking about what he tried to pass on to his students over the last three decades.

One student surprised Whitley with a note scribbled on his desk calendar in this, the last week of his teaching career. The note thanked him for being a friend and helping out on many occasions.

“You don’t reach every student,” Whitley said. “But it warms my heart to read that I made a difference in at least one child’s life this year. That one caught me a little bit by surprise.”

Whitley completes his 35th and final year of teaching when Central’s senior class crosses the stage tonight at San Angelo Stadium. For Whitley, it’s simply time to move on.

“I probably will not realize I’m retired until the first day of school next year,” Whitley said, “when school starts and I don’t.”

Over the past 28 years, he has worked in the San Angelo Independent School District teaching senior English, driver’s education and a work co-op class.

The 59-year-old teacher, husband and stepfather of two says he can relate to some of the difficulties his students have encountered — difficulties he has helped them with.

“If their life is not too great, one kick may be all that it takes to inspire them to quit (and) one pat on the back may be what it takes to keep them in school,” Whitley said. “I’d much rather give them the pat than the kick.”

He tells a story about a student who became pregnant this school year and dropped out along with the child’s father.

“I connected with the girl’s father, and, God willing, she’ll (return to school) next year,” Whitley said. “I don’t like to see them close doors on themselves.”

Joe Coleman, Central High’s principal for the past four years, has worked with Whitley on a few occasions to do what is best for students in need.

“An instance came up where the student didn’t do what they needed to do, and he was flexible enough to say, ‘We’ll come up with another plan that will help that student be successful,’ ” Coleman said. “That’s always good.”

Those successes will be rewarded this summer with an indulgence of his taste buds.

Whitley will take a trip with his wife, Donna, in July to the 26th Annual Taste of Chicago, for what he calls “a three-day excuse to eat and drink some cold beer” and will travel solo in August to fish for salmon and halibut in Alaska.

The gray-haired Whitley, a broad-shouldered, laid-back man, says the change in his hair color can be linked to teaching driver’s education for nearly 25 years between San Angelo Lake View and Central high schools.

“Driver’s Ed made me a much better Christian,” Whitley said. “I promise you, you pray a lot when you teach driver’s ed.”

After he earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos) in 1971 — a degree that Whitley admits took a little personal maturation to earn — he joined the faculty at Albert Thomas Middle School in the Houston Independent School District as an English and speech teacher.

Two years later, Whitley taught high school English and speech in Mertzon for five years before coming to the San Angelo district.

The class is designed for students to learn in the classroom during the morning and leave in the middle of the day to work a job.

Part-time employment might even be in Whitley’s future once September comes around.

“I don’t think watching TV would be much fun after about two days,” Whitley said.

Whitley says he’s not “much for goodbyes,” after his next-room neighbor comes in to ask for his address and pleads with him not to leave for the last time before saying goodbye, but he believes that “when one door closes, another one opens.”