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Beth Waterman closing career at Roachdale Elementary
ROACHDALE — Having devoted 35 years to the education profession, it would be agreed at North Putnam that it was lucky to have Beth Waterman for 10 of those.
It was perhaps with some reluctance, but certainly with gratitude, that the North Putnam School Board approved Waterman’s resignation as principal at Roachdale Elementary recently. That gratitude was shown by a standing ovation.
With retirement coming as the school year ends, Waterman is eager to focus on her family and grandchildren. But while she does not yet know how, she wants to remain connected to North Putnam.
Waterman has spent her education career in only two places, North Putnam being the second. She began at Northeast School Corporation in Sullivan County as a teacher at Dugger Elementary. She then was the assistant principal and principal, respectively, at North Central High School and Dugger.
After Waterman was a teacher for 14 years and in her principal positions for a decade, Northeast Schools consolidated and closed both Dugger Elementary and Union Junior-Senior High School in 2014.
“Obviously, that was a hard transition, you know, to leave friends,” Waterman said about then moving to North Putnam.
As a native of the Bluffton area, she acknowledged that she was already about four hours away from family at Sullivan. But she found that moving to North Putnam meant being a little closer to them.
Waterman arrived and served as assistant principal at North Putnam Middle School. In due time, she succeeded Scott Spencer as principal at Roachdale. She did not look back as she sought to promote students’ growth.
“Any school that I work at is special to me; the students are special to me,” Waterman said, applying that to both Northeast and North Putnam. “I just always want to make it family.”
The family aspect, she related, is what drew her to North Putnam. It was the close community and wanting to foster positivity in students. Moreover, much of that is about building foundations for life.
Waterman agreed that this building-up has to be crucial at the elementary level.
“We have to give them that foundation, and it happens at the elementary,” Waterman said. “They’re impressionable.
“I just know that, if these kids have a good, solid, positive foundation,” she added, “with building positive relationships, with knowing that they’re safe and valued and cared for, all of that will lead them to be productive adults.”
Waterman recalled having a teacher in third grade who was just plainly mean. She was fearful every single day of going to school. She knew then, and it was later affirmed, that she did not want kids to feel like she did.
From what she has found both as an administrator and as a teacher, things have to be about seeing students as people, no matter what.
“Kids are gonna make silly decisions and get in trouble, those kinds of things,” she said. “It’s looking past and seeing that human being. Knowing that I can make a difference for them.”
Ultimately, she came back to the thread that seems to permeate North Putnam, that of everyone being part of a tight-knit community. For her, her part in that is mission accomplished.
Waterman and husband Carl are looking forward to traveling and ministry. They also have four grandchildren with one on the way. On the education side, she can see becoming a mentor.
“It’s time for me to be able to spend time with my family,” Waterman said, though she perhaps also innately included North Putnam in that. “I will stay connected.”