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After More than a Decade, Mary Frances Smith to Retire as Assistant Principal at BHS in September

By Jeff Toquinto on August 15, 2017 via Connect-Bridgeport.com

School started this morning for students throughout Harrison County. Come September a school career lasting more than three decades will be coming to an official end on a full-time basis.
 
At tonight’s Harrison County Board of Education meeting, the elected body will consider the official retirement of Bridgeport High School long-time Assistant Principal Mary Frances Smith in the middle of next month. The act of accepting the request is a formality.
 
The retirement will end a career in the Harrison County education system that started in November of 1985. That means that she’ll fall just short of 32 years of service to students in Harrison County.
 
“I started my career teaching at Simpson Elementary under (former) Principal (Jim) Harki and then went to Lincoln and taught under (former) Principal (Jerry) Toth, where I spent 13 years,” said Smith. “I loved my time there, but with my kids going through the Bridgeport High School system and the opportunity arose to teach there, I wanted the opportunity to be there and have been there ever since.”
 
Her retirement becomes effective Sept. 18. Her actual last day will be Sept. 15, which is a Friday.
 
Smith didn’t arrive at BHS in her current role as an administrator. Instead, she arrived in 1998 as the choral director and theatre teacher (she said most of her work was teaching in theatre). It was in 2006 that she began serving as the assistant principal to Principal Mark DeFazio.
 
Ironically, her arrival at Bridgeport didn’t mark her first time working with and for DeFazio. Instead, the two had worked together in Shinnston.
 
“I’ve worked with her for a number of years before she came here at Lincoln. She was teaching music and I was a coach, athletic director and a teacher myself,” said DeFazio. “I’ve been here for a while, this is my 20th year, and I’ve been here with her 18 of those years where she served students as a teacher or as the assistant principal.
 
“She’s done a good job as the assistant principal and you hate to lose the familiarity,” DeFazio continued. “Anytime you lose somebody you’ve been with for more than a decade in a certain capacity means things will be different.”
 
Smith is not leaving the education arena as an administrator due to being burnt out. She’s also not leaving for another full-time teaching gig. Instead, she’s leaving for something that happened this summer.
 
“I’ve told my faculty there are two important dates in your life. The days are the day you were born and the day you figure out why,” said Smith.
 
Smith knows when that day came. And she knows it down to the minute – July 30, 2017 at 11:04 p.m.
 
“That was when my granddaughter (Emily Ann Barnosky) was born,” said Smith, of her daughter Victoria’s child.
 
Smith said she looked back to the time that her son Nick and Victoria had growing up being cared for by Anne Broslawsky. Although not a blood relative, Smith said she was forever thankful for the care that was provided by “Grandma Annie” to her children.
 
“I was never able to be a stay at home mother,” said Smith. “They had a home setting thanks to Anne and I want to be able to provide the same type of care for my grandkids.”
 
Smith said she talked with DeFazio about the decision this summer. She said she didn’t want to leave DeFazio and BHS in a bind with a new hire as the new year began so she opted to wait until September when she said the crush of the start of the school season is no longer in full throttle.
 
“What I hate about leaving is that I love what I’m doing in terms of career guidance and academic counseling; making sure kids have the right classes and support they need,” said Smith.
 
Smith, though, hopes to continue on that front. She is looking into becoming an educational advisor or consultant where she can help students as they are in middle school to figure out the direction they may want to take and the courses and extracurricular activities that will help get them there.
 
“I would help with that and issues including financial aid, college applications, scholarships and more. I’m pretty comfortable in those areas and would be very happy to assist others in those area,” she said.
 
Smith may also return to Bridgeport High School. She’s also looking to be approved as a substitute teacher, which will also likely be a formality, at today’s meeting.
 
“I’ll be back, if Mark will have me,” she said with a laugh. “I think I could be an asset because he knows I understand how things are done and he wouldn’t have to worry about me not knowing things that are needed and expected.”
 
DeFazio said she should be listening for the phone.
 
“We’ll be calling her,” said DeFazio. “We wish her well and we certainly understand the change in her obligation and it’s one to be commended.”
 
Along with missing her job, Smith said she’ll miss many other things that make her job special.
 
“I know I’ll miss the school itself, but I’ll miss the faculty, Mark and the community, which is just wonderful,” she said. “Those things make me a little bit said, but I’m ready to start a new chapter.”
 
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Mary Frances Smith at work Monday at BHS, while she's shown presenting her children, Nick and Victoria, with their scholarships as they graduated from high school in the next two pictures. The bottom photo shows her her holding her granddaughter, who's not yet a month old. Photos courtesy of Mary Frances Smith.


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