A parody brings a chuckle to Powell Middle principal Cy Wingrove, who retires after 34 years with Hernando schools.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published May 31, 2003
Sixth-grade teacher Mike Varn grabbed the microphone as the music from Achy Breaky Heart poured from a nearby speaker.
Retiring Powell Middle School principal Cy Wingrove, who had just completed a teary farewell address to his staff, burst into laughter as he heard the parodied lyrics that Varn had written the night before.
"You can tell Earl I'm off to see the world; you can burn my office when I'm gone," Varn sang, Earl being assistant principal Earl Deen. "Or you can tell your friends, just what a fool I've been, and laugh and joke about me on the phone."
Wingrove, clad in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and tennis shoes ("It's my casual day," he explained), gamely clapped and sang along with the staff members who filled the school cafeteria for a barbecue to honor his 34 years with the Hernando school district. He spent the past 15 years leading Powell.
"I never looked at it as a job," said Wingrove, 68, who moved here from Akron, Ohio, after spending a spring vacation in Florida and returning home to find snow on the ground. "I just loved coming to work."
A juvenile probation officer at the time, he could not find a similar job in Hernando County. So he took a teaching position, learning the job by doing it, and never looked back.
Until Thursday, that is, when he and his family boarded a school bus with a "just retired" sign on the back and took a road trip through memory lane. The bus took him to all of his old schools - including Eastside Elementary, Springstead High and the former Mitchel L. Black Elementary - and then home.
Except for one last day of filling out paperwork, and time to clear his office, Wingrove was done. As the marquee sign in front of Powell said, "Cy Wingrove has left the building." After thanking the staff and wishing them well, he fished a heavy, key-laden ring from his pocket during Thursday's party and handed it to Deen. "The keys to the kingdom," he said, smiling.
Wingrove plans to take his family to Disney World, go camping with his wife and then take a month off to "do nothing and see what life has to offer."
He said he might find another job, or maybe he will volunteer. Reading to elementary school children sounds pleasant, he said.
One thing is sure, though.
"I'm not going to sit home," Wingrove said. "I'll go nuts, and Linda (his wife) will go nuts."
With 34 years in the system, Wingrove is one of the longest-tenured educators to retire from the school district this year. All told, 66 employees with a collective 1,191 years of service are retiring.
Among them is Powell's first principal, Ken Bonfield, who for the past 10 years has been an assistant principal at Springstead High.
Bonfield, 57, joined the district 30 years ago as a social studies teacher at Hernando High, which at the time was the county's only high school. He still recalls when Spring Hill was little more than one road with a handful of houses on either side.
He and his wife, Dianne, who teaches at Pine Grove Elementary, moved to Florida from the Cleveland area after spending a vacation in Clearwater and returning home to snow on the ground.
They applied for jobs from Crystal River to Sarasota, landing in Hernando County for what they figured would be a year or two before moving to a more metropolitan area. Instead, they planted roots.
Bonfield called opening Powell in 1984 one of his career highlights. More rewarding than anything, though, is when former students return for a visit, he said.
"That's probably the most satisfying thing, when kids come back to you and tell you you had an impact on their life," said Bonfield, who also spent two years as the district's purchasing director.
As a retiree, Bonfield plans to split his time between Spring Hill, where he will volunteer in the community and also work part time, and Marco Island, where he has a second home and enjoys water sports and golfing. Leaving Spring Hill entirely, once an expectation, is now out of the picture.
"I've lived in this community 30 years, and it has been good to me," he said. "I'd like to give something back."
Others retiring after 30 years or more are J.D. Floyd Elementary principal Janet Yungmann-Barkalow, Hernando High principal Elaine Sullivan, Hernando High assistant principal Jane Padgett, education foundation director Carolyn Mountain, bus driver Mildred Drake, Parrott Middle School media specialist Anna Smith, Hernando High teachers Chester Jones and Stephen Brooks, Parrott teacher Reanell Passons, Brooksville Elementary teacher Pamela Poore and Moton Elementary food and nutrition manager Delois Taylor.
- Jeffrey S. Solochek covers education and politics in Hernando County. He can be reached at 754-6115 or solochek@sptimes.com
