LEWISTON — Grace Morgan, 9, a third-grader at McMahon Elementary School, had “Mrs. E,” Linda Everett, in prekindergarten.

“She was very nice,” Morgan said. “She was kind, fun.” The little girl paused, struggling to remember more.

“It was a long time ago,” Grace finally said.

Everett reminded her how they used to sing the letters of G-R-A-C-E to the tune of B-I-N-G-O to help her learn her letters.

Grace smiled. She remembered and sang the song with Everett.

After 45 years working as an educational technician for elementary students, Everett is retiring.

She was hired by the Lewiston School Department in 1972, when the video game “Pong” was released, miniskirts were the rage, when you could buy two hamburgers, a small fry and a drink at McDonald’s for about $1.

Everett, not quite 67, said retiring is a huge decision.

“I love my job,” she said. “I love the kids.”

She shared how thrilling it was when she awarded a certificate to one boy, who was learning to speak English, after he mastered the six letters in his name.

“It gave me goosebumps,” she said.

Everett is retiring to help her father, 88.

“He needs my attention,” she said.

She graduated from St. Dominic High School in 1972, and worked for Labadie’s Bakery, famous maker of the whoopie pie.

A woman she worked with was going to night school to be a teacher.

“I told her I wanted to be a teacher,” Everett said. “She said, ‘Why don’t you apply to Janice Plourde at Dingley to be an ed tech?’ In those days, you only needed a high school diploma to be an ed tech. I was fortunate.”

Ed techs today need three years of college.

She applied and was hired.

Her first assignment was at McMahon Elementary School. She later worked at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, providing Title I services to students who needed help in reading and math. In those years, public schools provided Title I, a federal financial assistance program, to Catholic schools.

At some point, the Catholic students had to receive the help at Wallace Elementary School.

“I crossed Main Street with St. Joe’s kids for seven years — rain, hail, sleet and snow,” Everett said.

In 1994, she came back to McMahon. Five years ago, she started working in prekindergarten.

“Do we have fun together?” she asked a group of five students, who nodded in response. Four were her former prekindergarten students. One, Abigail Burleigh, 5, is in prekindergarten.

“I told her she couldn’t retire until she had my youngest (Abigail),” parent Amy Burleigh said. “She does a good job. She’s so nurturing. … She’s a grammy figure.”

Everett works in teacher Amy Gagnon’s classroom.

“She’s been teaching longer than I’ve been alive,” said Gagnon, 43. “I respect her years in education. She may have the title of ed tech,” but the two work as partners. “She was born to teach.”

Comparing teaching now to 1972, Everett said education has changed drastically.

“It’s totally different,” she said. “There are so many expectations put on the teachers. Everything is assessments. For pre-K, we have to do 52 components for their report cards. It takes us two weeks.”

Another change is prekindergarten didn’t exist in public schools in 1972.

“Pre-K is the best thing for kids,” Everett said. Students who have attended know what to do in kindergarten and have more success in school, she said. 

But the first part of the school year for 4- and 5-year-olds is challenging.

“Whoa!” she said, adding that there are some tears.

It takes a while for them to learn the school routine. They have trouble with fine motor skills, like opening their milk cartons.

“I wish the milk company would put Velcro on the milk cartons,” she said with a laugh.

By November, the children adjust.

Everett said it’s starting to hit her that after next week, her adventures in the classroom will be done.

She’ll miss school. She plans to visit, and intends to work as a substitute teacher for prekindergarten students. But she’ll skip the first six weeks.

“I’m taking September and October off,” she said.

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