Two SoRo Teachers Retire
After a Combined 46 Years
By Mary Waterman

She’s starting a new chapter of life after 24 years as South Royalton High School’s English teacher.

He’s hesitant to "blow his own horn" after 22 years of band teaching accomplishments.

She’s Louise Barreda.

He’s Bob Maurer.

Both are retiring from the school this year.

They credit their combined 46 years as SoRo teachers to the people surrounding them. Each shared stories of influence from administrators, colleagues, community members, and students.

Barreda’s SoRo career started after she hesitantly agreed to direct a school musical while raising three young boys. She chose "The Fantasticks"—with a manageable cast of eight. A year later she added English teaching to her work load.

Reflecting back, Louise and her Peruvian husband Victor chose Vermont on the recommendation of friends in the Peace Corps. They purchased their Tunbridge farm 26 years ago and never looked back.

Victor and Louise met at Penn State University before heading to South America for 12 years, working on a high altitude anthropological project. That was the birth place of all three boys. 

Louise aspired to be an English teacher, influenced by a passion for literature, and language. She found she had an infatuation with theater, explaining, "…there’s so much talent inside kids, not released until they have a venue for discovery."

She also credits the addition of Advanced Placement (AP) English for academic leaps in the classroom, adding, "I’ve grown through that as a teacher for all kids."

Wanted Small School

Maurer came to SoRo because he wanted a small-school workplace.

"I’m the least likely person you’d expect to go into music," he claimed. As early as the fourth grade, the Vietnam War era, he decided to learn the trumpet, hoping that if he was drafted he could play in the service band.

"No other band teacher in the state has a reason like that!" Maurer joked.

He also admits to understanding students who don’t practice: "Not until 10th grade did I see a goal related to being the first-chair lead trumpet at Rutland High."

He also credited his sports hobbies (he ran track while completing a UNH music degree) for learning determination.

"Being an athlete, you realize if you’re going to get good at something, you’ve got to work at it," he said.

Outside of teaching, he researches baseball, is on the chain crew for 1-AA College Football (Ivy and Patriot Leagues), was a competitive runner, and has played with rock bands. Perhaps his most memorable group, "The Spiders," featured spiked collar outfits! 

Changes in Teaching

"Technology" was the response by both when asked about changes in teaching. They started with a cranked mimeograph machine but have graduated to such high-tech gadgets as computers for music composition and video editing, a voice messaging phone system, networked copiers, Internet and a Smart Board.

Barreda added that teaching "has become a much more difficult job now due to state and federal requirements."

She also acknowledged that students are exposed to much more now; when she first started many of her students hadn’t even been to Hanover, she noted.

Future Plans

Barreda will return to South America this summer to visit family and renew friendships. She will consider options upon her return, including completing an oral history project started through a Dartmouth college course.  

"It’s about Vermont’s one-room school houses. Shaun (Pickett, the principal) first taught in a one-room school house," she explained. She may make an encore appearance to direct other South Royalton Players performances.

Living in West Lebanon, Bob Maurer and his wife have two young teens. She will continue as director of clinical operations for DHMC and he anticipates supporting school projects, but not as a teacher.

He will continue to pursue visiting every Major League baseball park in the country.

"Teaching keeps you young," he concluded. "It helps you stay in touch with your child-like side. I want to stay connected." 

As the South Royalton school year concluded last week, Principal Pickett shared stories about their many years of working together, which resulted in a standing ovation to recognize their dedicated work and to wish them well on the path of a new beginning.