A long tenured career in education has come to an end for one educator in the Greene County School District.

Deb Marquardt started teaching at Fort Dodge High School when she was 22 years old in special education with an emphasis on self-contained behavior disorders, and she also coached several sports. She then landed a kindergarten through 12th grade guidance counselor position at Paton-Churdan, before spending the final 21 years of her teaching career at then Jefferson-Scranton, now Greene County School District. She has been a counselor and has taught dual credit classes in psychology and been an instructor for the education strain at the career academy.

Marquardt describes what she will miss the most about being a teacher and a coach.

“Having intelligent conversations with young people that are deep, that make them think, critically think, about life. I will miss that a lot. I hope that I am able to engage in that in a different way. When it comes to coaching, recently I’ve done middle school cross country and basketball, and I will say there’s nothing better in the fall than being out on a trail on a course with middle school kids learning to run. I came away from almost every cross country practice probably in the last five years, this is the best way to spend my four o’clock to six o’clock.”        

Marquardt gives this advice to up and coming educators.

“If you could at the end of everyday pause and do a little reflection. How did my day go? Did I meet my objectives? Do I need to switch something up? So I think personal reflection leads to better self awareness, leads to better mindfulness, and those are things that I am very passionate about.”  

Marquardt adds that she will do whatever she wants whenever she wants now that she is retired, but enjoys simple things like gardening, going for a walk or a bike ride, and reading books. She will officially retire after 38 years in education at the end of June.