By Olivia Svoboda

Copy Editor

Social studies teacher Elizabeth Roberts is retiring after 32 years. She has spent the last 12 years at South.

I taught for the first 10 years of my career at Blue Springs High School, and then I went to Delta Woods Middle School, and I taught there for about nine years, and then in 2009, I came here, and this has been my final home,” Roberts said.

She started out teaching English, along with a study skills class. After decades of experience, though, she has taught nearly every social studies class, with her favorite being American History 101 and 102.

“I’ve taught almost everything in social studies: geography, world history, U.S. history, world religion, psychology – just a little bit of everything,” she said.

Roberts has been in the area her entire life. She went to Truman High School in Independence, and she graduated from the University of Central Missouri with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

As she has taught throughout the district, South has become her final home to settle.

“The staff is such a wonderful staff; some of my closest friends are here. I love the students here; just this building has a unique and special quality where it just feels like home,” she said.

South was even homier for Roberts when her three daughters attended and graduated. She remembers a time in 2018 when her daughter, along with two teachers, made sure she wouldn’t miss a meeting.

“I’m notoriously late and somewhat forgetful, and Mrs. Ladd and Mrs. Bubalo, who used to teach here, conspired with my daughter to make sure I was at a meeting on time, because they announced that I was the Blue Springs South teacher of the year,” she said.

Now, Roberts is planning for retirement, though she doesn’t have any detailed plans yet.

“I’m going to find something to fill my time; I don’t know if it’ll be part time teaching, or if there’ll be some other job that I’m not yet connected to, but I’m going to find something. I’m going to travel a little bit more, spend a little more time with my parents who are elderly, and just enjoy life,” she said.

Roberts hopes that South will continue to provide its students with the special qualities that she has experienced during her time teaching.

“[I hope] that South will stay true to those characteristics: respect, integrity, and leadership, all those core values that we think are important,” she said.