Last modified: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:10 AM CDT

On cusp of retirement, Peterie has found Warren home

By NATALIE JORDAN, The Daily News, njordan@bgdailynews.com/783-3243

With his father a retired educator, being in education is in Stan Peterie's blood.

“All my life I felt like I wanted to be a teacher,” Peterie said. “I would go from wanting to be a lawyer back to a teacher. Then I'd want to be an accountant ... then I'd go back to wanting to be a teacher.”

Peterie decided he wanted to do something for society besides pay taxes - and help develop the leaders of the future.

But Peterie is more than a teacher. He became an educator.

Peterie, 49, has 27 years of teaching and administrating under his belt, starting with his first teaching job in Todd County. From Todd County, Peterie taught for seven years at Rockfield Elementary School before moving to Moss Middle School for two more years.

Peterie went to Caverna Elementary, transitioning from a teacher to a principal, before going to Austin Tracy in Barren County as principal for two years at its K-8 building.

In 1993, he begin working for the Simpson County Board of Education as director of personnel and federal programs.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the classroom,” Peterie said. “ After 10 years of teaching I felt I was ready for a change professionally, and once I become principal - even though I missed the day-to-day interaction with students in the classroom - I was still able, as principal, to work indirectly with students through their teachers.”

Peterie said there are a lot more challenges as principal because a principal has to take care of “say 600 students rather than 30 students.”

While Peterie found his way through the education field, county by county, in 2001 he returned to Warren County as district assessment coordinator and secondary education supervisor.

“I left Warren County in 1990, and when I returned in 2001, the district was much larger with a fairly new group of administrators,” he said. “My duties in this position were totally new to me, so I had quite a learning curve. All the people I worked with eased that transition. The district has continued to grow and there have been more state and federal regulations put in place in all aspects of education.”

Yet, coming back to Warren County was like coming home for the Iowa native. Peterie attended kindergarten in Iowa, and first and second grade in Missouri before his family settled in Bowling Green, where his father, Neil Peterie, was a professor at Western Kentucky University.

Peterie began third grade in Warren County Schools, going through Rich Pond Elementary, Cumberland Trace and Warren East High School. He also earned his bachelor's, master's and rank one in school administration from Western.

For six years, Peterie has overseen testing from start to finish as the district assessment coordinator and had a hand in many initiatives and mandates handed down by state and federal governments as a secondary education supervisor.

“It's been really odd to have to supervise some of my former teachers,” he said with a chuckle. “Luckily they were good teachers, so it made the job easy.”

Peterie's last day with Warren County Schools in his current position is Aug. 31 - retirement being an early 50th birthday present to himself.

“I'm ready to retire because I'm ready for a change of pace,” he said. “I have two children in college and I'd like to be more available to them on a daily basis.”

Following his retirement, Peterie said he has plans to take a few months off and remodel the home. He said he then plans to go back to work part time, although he is not sure just where yet.

Consulting work might be in the cards, too, he said.

“I tell people who are considering this as a profession to love the child first and the subject matter second. I also tell them to be prepared for a lot of hard work that pays off with quality results,” he said. “Education has been and is a great profession, and I want to go out on a positive note while I still like what I do.”