Woods retiring from Nevada School District after 33 years

Nevada Daily Mail

"It was great working there. It was like a second home," Mary Woods said of the Nevada R-5 School District where she worked for 33 years as a custodian, before retiring Aug. 1, because of worsening eyesight problems.

At the same time she said she would not miss being called in to work in the middle of the night or for some emergency cleanup.

Woods, who was born with an eye condition that makes her legally blind, said her parents, Annamarie and Donald Lee Wolf, expected her to do the same work around the house her brothers and sisters did. So she grew up not expecting special treatment and becoming very independent.

Woods grew up in a large family with six brothers and one sister: Donald, Donna, Vic, Bill, Jack, Jo and Wilbur, who died as a child.

"I worked at Quick Dine while was in high school for DECA," she said.

"I also worked at Farm and Home for three years," she said.

During her years working at the high school she had a lot of fun with the teachers.

One time she attached Kevin McKinley's chair to his desk with rubber bands.

"Kevin hid my (cleaning) cart in a bathroom," she said.

In addition to the normal work, in the winter there was shoveling snow to clear the sidewalks, sports in the fall and winter, ROTC, and decorating for prom.

"The hardest places to clean were the band room and the old auditorium because the lights were so bad," she said.

And the gym after ball games.

"The Nevada fans were worse than the visitors at leaving trash," she said, adding that the visiting team cleaned up the locker room.

She was in the high school when the micro burst hit Nevada.

The doors flew open, windows broke and glass went flying, she said.

On 9-11 she said the students were very quiet.

"It was amazing the kind of impact it had on them," she said.

"The Renaissance assemblies were always good," she said.

"Dave Adams (the high school principal) came in on a motorcycle, and Kevin McKinley wore a yellow polka dot bikini," she said.

Woods said that until recent years they got 1 or 2 percent raises each year.

That is also the time the school district, like many others, found its state-funding cut, and to cut its expenses cut the maintenance staff and other personnel.

"The cuts in maintenance left more outside shoveling for the custodians," she said, adding that they are all maintenance staff now.

When the new gym and performing arts center were added, the maintenance staff had to do more work.

Despite her eyesight problems, Woods is still as independent as possible.

She walked to and from work until last year when her family would take her to work and then pick her up.

She said she is still able to walk to a nearby convenience store and despite her son's advice, she still mows her own yard.

"I'm a very independent person and the hardest thing for me to do is to ask for help and I know I have to now," she said.

She has two sons, Jason and James and two step-children, Leslie and Kelly, and two grandchildren here in Nevada, Blake and Alex.

Now she spends the time when she is not going to the store or mowing her yard listening to audio books that she gets from the Wolfner Memorial Library in Jefferson City and going to her grandson's ball games.

There will be a retirement open house at Nevada High School in the Library Media Center on Wednesday, Aug. 19, from 10-11a.m., honoring Woods.