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Schools

Disease ends career far sooner than she expected

After 14 years as Bloomingdale High's principal, an illness is forcing B.J. Stelter to step back.

By LETITIA STEIN
Published December 23, 2005

VALRICO - B.J. Stelter didn't want this retirement party.

Co-workers insisted on the poinsettias, lined at the entrance to Bloomingdale High. They planned it to perfection, as Stelter would have demanded.

Around prom time and graduation, Stelter joked that she should have been a party planner.

Except, she already had the job she wanted. She counted 14 years as Bloomingdale's leader, more than any other high school principal in Hillsborough County.

She wasn't ready to retire.

Her health gave her little choice.

"I'm hoping that I make it today," she said, taking small steps on her husband's arm toward the crowd that wanted this sendoff.

Stelter, 58, grew up with the best of two worlds. Her family had homes in New York and Clearwater Beach. She was an only child until the age of 14.

"And, yes, I was spoiled," she said.

She knew she was in trouble if her father called her by her real name, Elizabeth Jean. Since she was a child, everyone has called her B.J. The nickname stuck in college at the University of South Florida.

That's how mutual friends introduced her to Alan, a swimmer at USF. It would have been hard not to notice B.J., with her long, flowing hair, spending a lot of time at the pool.

She still winks when asked to recall how they got together. It's not a story for the newspaper, she says.

In the long run, it mattered that they share independent spirits. They enjoy scuba diving and boating in Long Boat Key and Sarasota. They spoil two German shorthaired pointers named Frannie and Zoie. (And, yes, the dogs are named for the J.D. Salinger characters.)

They don't have children. But Stelter always had students.

In college, she planned to major in psychology. But hearing about a shortage of substitute teachers, she decided teaching would be a good way to earn pocket money.

At Sulphur Springs Elementary, she was asked to watch a class of special education students. The school couldn't hold onto a substitute teacher in that classroom.

"When I went home at the end of the day, I had the greatest feeling that I have ever had," Stelter said. "I felt I did some good."

She changed her major to special education.

On a resume, 35 years in education is marked in job titles and schools.

At Stelter's retirement party, co-workers measured the years with uncontrolled laughter.

At East Bay High, students coveted time with the brunet first-year teacher.

"B.J. was drop dead gorgeous, no doubt about it. She's tall, long legs, shiny dark hair all the way down to her bum," said Gail Crosby, who co-taught in a portable room. "We were the only school in the nation that had guys standing in line to get into special ed."

Stelter's mother had a different take on her first teaching assignment.

"If you do a good job, do you think they'll let you work with regular kids?" Stelter recalls her mother asking.

Eight years later, she had the chance.

At Brandon High School, more than 4,000 students were crammed onto a campus on double sessions in 1976. Principal Orlan Briant needed an afternoon dean for female students, a job title that didn't raise eyebrows in the day.

Stelter's professionalism impressed him. When he offered her the job, Brian heard her erupt with a loud squeal. He never forgot the rare break in her formal demeanor.

Later, her silk blouses and manicured nails were the talk of Mann Junior High, where she was named the first female principal. Yet for students, she risked a fashion faux pas.

To rally school spirit, Stelter showed up in an oversized T-shirt and leggings in the school's colors, orange and blue.

"True dedication," recalled Judy Simmons, then a teacher at Mann.

This is how Stelter recalls those years: When students scrawled on the walls of a bathroom at Brandon High, she didn't just dispense the usual disciplinary measures. She came in on the weekend to paint with them.

There were few female high school principals when Stelter took the top job at Bloomingdale High in 1992. She was more like one of the boys than a soccer mom.

Stelter has driven a Porsche, a '55 Thunderbird, a Corvette, and a '65 Mustang Sally.

She currently has a champagne-colored Infinity sports car that she wishes was black. Her husband counseled her against a dark color when they moved to a house on a dirt road in Thonotosassa.

The move meant long days when Bloomingdale had evening events.

"When you love what you're doing, going to work is not going to work," Stelter said. "It's leaving your home to enjoy yourself for the day, to see what you can accomplish."

At Bloomingdale, Stelter blew the whistle to climb onto the A-train when Bloomingdale became the first high school in the county to earn an "A" on the state's FCAT report card. She celebrated a state award for athletics.

She worked to beautify Bloomingdale by installing stained glass windows.

She served cheese toast at staff meetings, which Stelter concluded with these words: "Make a difference out there."

This year, she wanted to oversee the development of an academy for first-year students that Bloomingdale started. Her retirement was coming up in June, but Stelter planned to keep working through a program that lets schools hold onto experienced educators.

"I wasn't finished with what I wanted to do," she said. "I felt I had more to give."

With a folded tissue, Stelter wiped away the tears forming behind her glasses at her going-away party.

Then it was her turn.

She took baby steps to the podium.

"That weird walk that I do is called the penguin walk. Not everyone can do it," she said. "You have to have a special illness to do it."

She didn't share details of her medical condition with the crowd.

It's called Meniere's disease, and it prevented Stelter from hearing everything said at her retirement party. Hearing loss is a characteristic of the disease.

So is fluctuating vertigo. By the end of the event, Stelter felt dizzy.

Stelter had brain tumors removed in 2000. Now the tumors are back. Between dealing with both health issues, Stelter felt she couldn't continue as Bloomingdale's principal.

She marked her final day last week as the semester ended.

After packing 20 boxes of personal belongings, many gifts from students and coaches, Stelter said she felt anger and frustration in her bare office. After 35 years in education, life handed her a tough lesson.

"Sometimes, I feel that I'm indispensable," she said. "I'm vulnerable. I'm not Superwoman."

Her deteriorating health has robbed her of more than the principal's office. She no longer can enjoy recreation like diving and boating.

"I'm not the kind of person that feels sorry for myself," she said. "I'll have to find alternatives for enjoyment."

Addressing her health is the first goal of retirement. Stelter and her husband, who works at home crafting custom wood furnishings, also plan to visit Costa Rica or Colorado.

A year from now, she hopes to return to education.

For now, she is passing along the microphone to the PA system at Bloomingdale. She left students with these words: "Be safe, and make good choices during vacation."

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:28:03]