Curriculum culture: 'Everyone is in it to win it,’ Trussville retirees say

On their last day before retirement, Beth Bruno and Jennifer Cardwell were a couple of the last people to leave the Trussville City Schools Central Office.

They weren’t staying behind to hug colleagues, really. They had already done that. No, they had work to finish.

Bruno, an educator since 1978, and Cardwell, an educator since 1993, have been in the Curriculum and Instruction department since 2014.

“We started this together, and it just made sense that we end it together and allow for others to come aboard and lead,” said Cardwell, the secondary curriculum coordinator and former English teacher.

On their last day as full-time educators, Bruno and Cardwell were busy. Cardwell finished up summer school at Hewitt-Trussville High School. Both led morning and afternoon trainings on Scantron Analytics, an application that will allow administrators, counselors and teachers to access schoolwide data and trends in one place.

“It will help administrators and counselors and our instructional coaches better support our students and catch things early,” Cardwell said. “That’s the goal. It’s going to be a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

The busy day left both educators feeling as if retirement was still a distant event. They had taken things home from their offices for the past few months, so their final day felt like any other.

“It was a constant discussion today of the here and now,” Cardwell said. “It was not about the future at all.”

Bruno added it was never about them — it was about growing teachers and helping students.

“If I had one word for us, it’s workhorses. We worked,” she said. “There was never a time that we didn’t want to get up and come to work. Loved every single day. And I’m as serious as a heart attack. I hear people go, ‘I’ve got 20 more years.’ There was never a day that I didn’t like being here. Ever.”

Bruno, the assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction who has also been an elementary principal, said she will spend part of retirement in a part-time role with Trussville City Schools, helping implement a state-piloted dyslexia learning program.

“I do feel like it’s a huge opportunity for me, so I’m excited about it,” said Bruno, who plans to also volunteer with her church, travel and spend time with family.

Cardwell won’t be traveling soon, but she will be spending time with family. She and her husband are opening The Meadows Golf Course in Harpersville, so her immediate plans are to get the course up and running.

They both said the first day of the 201920 school year will be weird. Their routines have now changed. Cardwell will be working to open the golf course. Bruno will be in a new role for the dyslexia learning program. One thing won’t change, however.

“I’m going to continue to learn,” Bruno said emphatically. “So, I will continue to read and study and learn.”

That is no surprise for Bruno, who at age 12 watched her mother study and become a teacher.

“I couldn’t think of anything better to do,” she said.

The same goes for Cardwell.

“It chose me. I never chose it,” she said. “I always knew what I wanted to do. I would teach my brother and sister when they were like 3 and 4 in front of the chalkboard that my mom got me. So, it was always just in my heart. I knew I was supposed to teach, and I never regretted the profession, ever.”

Both said creating a collaborative environment for teachers was the accomplishment that stood out most to them while working in the Curriculum and Instruction department. They began bringing teachers together and letting them learn from each other. Collaboration today in Trussville City Schools is second nature.

“Because of that instruction is so much better,” Bruno said. “They do a good job. Of course if you put nine heads together, you’re going to get better plan than just one person.”

One of the first focuses was literature. Then came math.

“Having that focus on content is so important,” Cardwell said. “If you take your eye off of that, it’s damaging. There are a lot of trends in education. The pendulum swings constantly, but content is our focus. If we’re paying attention to that, which I feel like we did that, we can certainly help grow our students, and I think our ranking supports that work.”

Bruno said Trussville City Schools is in great shape moving forward, calling the employees of the district “the most dedicated, hardworking, really skilled people.”

“When you walk down the halls of school on any given day, you see people giving it their all, students, teachers, and administrators,” Cardwell said. “No one is left out of that learning loop. Everyone is in it to win it, literally. I think that’s why it’s been such a wonderful career is that we’ve been in it to make Trussville the best school system that it can be. And it is. But I think that it will still continue.”

“I do, too,” Bruno said.

Bruno and Cardwell then turn back to their laptop computers just after 5 p.m. on their last day. There is still work left to do.