After 30 years, Louise Arnold retires from BBPS
Thirty years is a long time for one person to work at any one place, but it really is outstanding to work with children that long.
In 1994, Louise Arnold received a phone call from the Broken Bow elementary school principal asking her to apply for a para-educator position. That started Arnold’s lifelong career with the Broken Bow Public Schools.
Arnold held many positions during that time and worked with a variety of ages. She worked with Kindergarten up to
High School as a para, librarian, copy person and homework helper.
Asked what age is her favorite age to work with, Arnold said, “Fifth grade, because they are older. I like it when they are reading to learn, not learning to read.”
Some of her fondest memories include receiving little trinket gifts - some homemade, some not - from the students. She has kept every single one of the gifts and wrote the student’s name and year received on them. She won the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest one year for wearing a real stuffed squirrel attached to her sweater like the scene from the movie, “Christmas Vacation.” She said she loved the children’s reactions as they told her she had a squirrel on her back with one child tearing up about it.
Arnold has had many people ask her what she plans to do with her time now that she is retired. She said she has a lot of projects already started that she wants to complete, including scrap-booking, updating her grandchildren’s photo albums and having many quilt squares already cut and ready to be made into quilts. Arnold is also excited to be able to spend more time with her 91-year-old mother.
Asked about the possibility of traveling, Arnold said she would really love to go on a cruise to some place warm one day.
Arnold was asked, “What made it easy to stay at the same job for so long?” She replied that the children and coworkers turned into friends who made it really easy. However, the main reason was seeing when the children understood something.
“When I was working with a student and they weren’t understanding the lesson, I would explain it a different way and it would be just like a light bulb that went off. That’s when they got it!” she said.