The ‘last original’ bids goodbye to Colonia H.S.
Sandra Schmidtke leaves with 40 years of fond memories

JEFF GRANIT staff Colonia High School Vice Principal Sandra Schmidtke cracks up senior Julie Coats (r), as she prepares to write in her yearbook last week

BY COLLEEN LUTOLF

Staff Writer

Every year since Colonia High School was built in 1967, Sandra Schmidtke has left the school’s halls on the last day of school, only to return in September.

This year, when the school empties of students on the last day of school, Schmidtke will leave with them.

Only this time, she won’t return.

JEFF GRANIT staff Retiring Vice Principal Sandra Schmidtke demonstrates how the sign above secretary Karma Provenzano’s desk is supposed to work in Colonia High School’s main office last Thursday.

The only remaining original staff member of Colonia High School, Schmidtke, the school’s vice principal, is retiring after 40 years in the Woodbridge Township school district.

“I am the last original,” she said in her near-empty office Thursday.

“I guess she’s ready,” foods teacher Linda Terry said. “She knows it’s time. We all have to abide by her decision. None of us can imagine what it’s going to be like in September. We’re all wondering if she’s going to show up on the first day.”

Schmidtke’s office walls, for decades crammed with pictures of former and current students, and shelves packed with books and mementos from a lifetime’s worth of teaching, were practically bare.

Even the animal crackers and pretzels she keeps on her desk for hungry teenagers were gone.

Schmidtke described her experiences as a physical education teacher in a high school originally created as a vocational high school; how kids have changed, how they’ve stayed the same; the tumultuousness of having her final year at Colonia slammed with scandals; and if Sandra Schmidtke really does drip the school’s colors when she bleeds.

“I am the oldest thing in this building,” the 62-year-old vice principal said. “The school opened in 1967 with 1,800 students. It’s hard to believe we have 1,400 now and we’re busting at the seams. But we didn’t have class limits back then. There were roughly 35 kids to a class.”

Colonia was originally a three-grade vocational high school with sophomore through senior classes attending, Schmidtke said.

“We had auto shop, metal shop, electronics, a nursing program,” she said.

Schmidtke transferred from Avenel Middle School to become one of Colonia High School’s first gym and health teachers.

Donald Geddis was the school’s first principal and got to pick his staff, Schmidtke said.

“We thought we were hot to trot,” she said. “He told us what he wanted done and he wanted the best to do it. People didn’t mind, they usually want to be given direction.”

The school was originally built for air conditioning, but those plans were scrapped, Schmidtke said.

“That’s why all the windows are so small like this,” she said pointing to the vertical window that looks out on the high school’s courtyard. “They don’t let in a lot of light.”

Yet the small windows keep in plenty of heat, mostly on the second floor.

“If the main part of the building is in the high 80s, the second floor is at least 10 to 15 degrees hotter,” she said. “It’s not conducive for anybody.”

Ryan Miller, a 1992 Colonia High School graduate, is now an English teacher there.

“I was never in trouble,” he said. “But I don’t know what the building’s going to be like without her. Whoever’s got to fill her shoes has big shoes to fill.”

“More like has big pants to fill,” Schmidtke quipped. “You have to keep a sense of humor in this job. These are very lonely jobs. Most of the time, the things you’re dealing with, you can’t tell any of the teachers, you can’t start talking. It’s almost all confidential.”

The past few weeks, Schmidtke has been training her replacement, Tricia Fitzgerald.

“It’ll be difficult not having her around to go to,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald came to Colonia High School in 1998 as an English teacher and became that department’s head in 2004.

“I’ve been here for 38 years,” Schmidtke said. “I don’t want to break ties. Getting Tricia to take over, I’ve had to sit back and let the other person take the lead.”

Something Schmidtke has tried to impart to Fitzgerald is the importance of maintaining a balance.

“Anyone can make an easy decision,” she said. “It’s the tough decisions where you need to find the balance between two extremes. In some cases, there is nothing you can do; the situation is already out of your hands.”

This year has been full of situations that required tough decisions and a few that have been out of Schmidtke’s hands.

A locker room harassment incident involving five members of the boys’ soccer team resulted in the boys’ arrests and transfers to other district high schools; a 15-year-old girl, a student at Colonia High School, apparently committed suicide in November; and Edward Billings, a Colonia High School teacher was charged with criminal sexual contact with one of his students in December.

“We’re not different from any other school,” she said. “We have problems, but the good things the kids do are not the sensationalized type of news. It’s the negative things that grab headlines.”

Schmidtke said the Colonia High School population was unfairly portrayed in news reports regarding the scandals, and most kids were upset about it.

“There are things that are going to happen that are going to make news that aren’t reflective of the school itself,” she said.

The few students interviewed by reporters were not representative of Colonia High School students, she said. Some of them had been suspended and were wandering around school grounds during the day, which made them easy for reporters to snag, Schmidtke said.

“Those were kids with no vested interest in the school,” she said. “The school was represented in such a negative way. This isn’t really us, and we don’t want people to think it is. Those kids were making comments about the school and how bad it is. It’s just not true.”

What Schmidtke has noticed over the years, as teacher and disciplinarian, is that the teachers grow older. The way children are parented has changed — but the kids themselves, not so much, she said.

“Kids want to be treated fairly,” she said. “Kids haven’t changed. I’ve gotten another year older so you become another year further from their age.”

Parenting is no longer looked at as an art, Schmidtke said.

“We assume kids are going to take care of themselves,” she said. “The way kids have changed is that they’re brighter, smarter — they’re exposed to more things. We’re a changing society, but what hasn’t changed is the concept of education. Everyone is a critic of education because everyone has gone through the school system. The interpretation is ‘I pay your salary. What I want is what I should get.’

“Well, I live in this town, so I’m paying my salary, too,” she said. “That’s not the issue. The issue is discipline is not the answer — re-educating is usually what is necessary a lot of times.”

Schmidtke said she loves her job.

“The point of being a teacher is there is always a teachable moment when you’re working with kids,” she said. “I think they see me as a disciplinarian, but I don’t think I’m unreasonable. I think they know I’ll listen.”

And Schmidtke’s been listening for 40 years.

During her tenure at Colonia, Schmidtke has coached cheering, color guard, drill team, twirlers, floor hockey, track, tennis and archery. She has also been an adviser for the yearbook committee and school plays.

“There are those who say I bleed blue and gold, but the last time I scratched myself I saw red,” she said. “I just recently thought, ‘OK, it’s time for a change.’ I’ve done things I tried to do. I want to do something else.”

Schmidtke has set up a scholarship in her own name to help the kids even after she’s gone, she said.

“I wanted to start it while I’m still here,” she said, “so people know who Sandy Schmidtke is and I would see who the first recipient is.”

What Schmidtke will miss most about leaving Colonia High School is what brought her there in the first place.

“The kids,” she said.