Librarian set to retire, Celina Record

Celina High School teacher, librarian closes book on career Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Jun 3, 2016 0 Linda Long became a teacher for the same reason so many others claim to do so: She wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people. “I just feel like it’s so important,” she said. “I really do care about their lives and what’s going on.” For the bulk of her 32 years with the Celina ISD, she connected with them in classrooms before becoming the high school’s librarian in 2011. Long ends her lengthy career with the district today and is set to begin her retirement. “I feel like I had a really great career. It couldn’t have been better,” she said last month while seated at her desk in the library, where she said she has been able to connect with students differently than during her years in the classroom. “When it’s just you and him or her” in the library, she said, “you can just visit and see how their day’s going.” Still, the library wasn’t where Long thought she would end up when she began her career with the district in the early 1980s, teaching English and overseeing the cheerleading and drill teams at Celina Junior High School. Following a short stint at home tending to her young sons, she returned to the district in 1987 and went to work at Celina High School teaching English as well as economics and government classes. “I loved that,” she said of the latter. Her lesson plan included having students attend meetings of the Celina City Council. Her husband, Olen Long, was the city’s mayor from 1998-2001. “I felt like that was really valuable … so they kind of saw how it worked,” she said of the meetings. “I was just trying to prepare [students] for being good citizens, to just be knowledgeable about the world around them.” For 15 years, Long also served as the yearbook class sponsor. “I’m really proud of that,” she said. Back then, the class produced yearbooks that included the names and photos of each student in the district. For many of those years, there weren’t computers to assist with creating the book’s design and layout. “You had to do it all by hand,” she recalled. “It was so much fun. You really got to know your (yearbook) staff. I feel like we really made a history book of the year.” When the librarian position at the school became available, Long said she was recommended for the job by a fellow teacher and asked by the district’s then-superintendent Rob O’Connor to consider accepting it. “I hadn’t even thought about it,” she said, “but you know how English teachers are so into research and reading. It seemed like a good fit.” “When she moved to the library, it really broadened her touch” among students and staffers, said Terri Kennedy, Celina High School’s testing coordinator, who has known Long for a decade. “Kids just felt it was a very inviting place,” she said, as did the teachers who often visited with Long in the library. “We called it therapy,” Kennedy said. “We would go in (to see) a smiling face and just to talk before the day started. … She pays attention to everybody beyond just work.” “They come in here and a lot of them just talk and I just try to listen and encourage,” Long said. “They do the same for me, too.” Celina High School Principal Bill Hemby said Long “is probably the nicest human being I have ever been around in my life. She is so service-oriented and so kid-centered.” Jan Gellar, who teaches algebra at the school, said Long is “always willing to help anyone who walks through the library doors. … Everyone has benefitted from her generous heart and unfailing service to our school.” Last month, Long was bestowed the Maribeau B. Lamar Award of Excellence by Celina Masonic Lodge 919. The award is named in honor of the second president of the Republic of Texas, considered the father of education in the state. “It just means so much,” she said of receiving the award. “I really feel like I have made a difference for good,” Long said of her years in education. “That’s what you want at the end of your career.”