After 11 years as an education specialist and chair of the special education department, Sharon Bleviss is retiring. Bleviss spent 44 years working in special education, a career she said fulfills her purpose in life.

“In many cases, it is very much tied to my purpose on this planet,” Bleviss said. “To notice the people who are in need, and maybe some of them are kind of invisible, and other people haven’t noticed them, and to notice them and make sure that their needs are met.”

Bleviss serves as both teacher and counselor for neurodiverse students, which she said puts her in a position to shape the lives of her students.

“One of the most remarkable things I’ve learned is that sometimes it’s very obvious to me that I’ve made an impact on somebody’s life, because I often am the one person that the student can trust or can confide in,” Bleviss said.

For Bleviss, a favorite part of her experience at Burlingame is working alongside the people in her department.

“We can really rely on each other within my department. If one of us has either a personal emergency or a student emergency, we can get someone in our department to assist very quickly,” Bleviss said.

In her retirement, Bleviss looks forward to pursuing her hobby of glassmaking.

“[A] plan I have for my retirement is to expand my opportunity to make my glass-fused jewelry and stained glass,” Bleviss said. “I’m building a studio in my garage so I can do it whenever I want.”

Christian Balmy, who is retiring after 30 years of teaching physics, can still recall the day he interviewed for the position.

“I came for the interview. It was a warm June day, and I got out of my car, and I could smell the trees, and I was like, wow,” Balmy said.

Balmy spent all three decades of his career at Burlingame teaching physics, a field he said aligned naturally with his personality and interests.

“Physics teachers that I had looked like they were having a good time,” Balmy said. “I kind of feel like teaching physics for me, for my personality, and what I like was the perfect way to make a living.”

Believing that experiments would yield the same conclusions as the textbook, Balmy said he helped the physics department shift from a textbook-based curriculum to a more hands-on curriculum.

“As much as we could, we based the class and the principles of the class on what we can get from the experiment, and it wasn’t textbook driven,” Balmy said. “… The people who wrote the textbook apparently agreed with us, because they were claiming the same things that we claimed from the experiment,” Balmy said.

During his retirement, Balmy plans to travel, play music, and potentially take up swimming.

Over 30 years ago, Stephen Erle worked at a summer camp in Cazadero, where he met Larry Teshara, Burlingame’s principal at the time. Once Erle and Teshara got to know each other, Teshara offered him a job at Burlingame. Thirty three years later, Erle is retiring as the longest tenured teacher at the school.

Erle started his career at Burlingame by teaching social science classes for 14 years. He later shifted to videography and photography, building the advanced video program from the ground up.

“I get to see a creative side of people when they’re making videos and when they’re doing photography,” Erle said. “One of the things I liked about my career is I’ve done very different things.”

Over his tenure at Burlingame, Erle has witnessed both the school’s changes and constants.

“When I got here, there were maybe 1050 total students, and now we have over 1600,” Erle said. “We’ve still been able to keep our identity and traditions, even though the student body has changed, not just in quantity or number of kids, but also the diversity.”

In retirement, he will continue helping others, now with a focus on finance rather than education.

“I want to get a Certified Financial Planner license and work especially with other teachers, because I find that teachers don’t always plan as well as they could for their own retirements,” Erle said.

Cindy Skelton is retiring after 13 years at Burlingame, where she served as the drama and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) teacher, theater director, and instructional coach. For Skelton, the most rewarding part of teaching has been working with students in her drama class and the plays.

“I absolutely love collaborating with students. I love the ideas that they bring to the table… their energy, their enthusiasm, it makes me want to come to work every day,” Skelton said.

Skelton said the fun of theater comes from watching her students’ passion and initiative.

“It’s seeing that spark and that they take an idea and then they run with it,” Skelton said. “It’s fun, I get to give them a little… idea, and they can turn it into a full-blown production.”

Throughout her teaching career, Skelton sought to instill confidence and compassion in her students.

“I hope they leave my classes being more confident in presenting in other classes. I hope they leave with a sense of empathy and compassion for other people and that they know who they are as people,” Skelton said.

When she retires, Skelton plans to spend her time biking, hiking, and enjoying time with family.