BOISE, Idaho — Alyce Lundbohm was greeted by a surprise car parade outside her home Monday afternoon, celebrating her retirement and 53 years of service to the Boise School District.
“I was greatly surprised. I thought maybe a friend was coming to take a picture of me because I’m retiring, and I open the door to a tremendous surprise of many, many friends,” Lundbohm said. “It made me feel like I was loved.”
Forty of Lundbohm’s 53 years were spent at Garfield Elementary, where she was the coordinator for the Gifted and Talented program.
Instead of assigning kids to read pages in a textbook, she found what made them happy, and went from there.
“I like to find their passion and give them time to work on projects,” she said. “And I love to have hands-on problem-solving activities.”
Lundbohm’s co-workers at Garfield Elementary felt she deserved something special for her lifetime of service to children.
“Many teachers give a lot of themselves to their students, but Alyce goes above and beyond every day, and she’s done it for 53 years,” said Boise School District's Helga Frankenstein.
“She’s done it longer than anyone in the state of Idaho has done it,” Frankenstein added.
Lundbohm was greeted outside by an entourage of teachers from Garfield and the Boise School District.
“They just came one after the other, one after another,” she said.
Frankenstein said staff wanted to send a message of love and appreciation to the long-time educator.
“Just letting her know what a valuable and important member of not just Garfield, but the Boise School District, and how grateful we are for her years of service,” she said.
Lundbohm said the best part of her career was keeping in touch with her students, some of whom invited her to their graduations.
“That has been a delighting part of my career,” she said. “To have students contact me and to find out where their journey has taken them after they were in my classroom.”
Fifty-three years is long time, but apparently, that was not enough for Lundbohm.
“She has always been about the children,” Frankenstein said. “She was thinking she was gonna go until 80, and keep working.”
Frankenstein added that Lundbohm will leave a generational impact on her students.
“I have loved every minute of working for a fantastic school system,” Lundbohm said.
Lundbohm plans to spend her retirement traveling to Jerusalem and Brussels with her son, as well as volunteering with the Boise School District.