Keizertimes., June 29, 2018, Page PAGE A6, Image 6

PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 29, 2018
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Mrs. Matiskainen retires
after career in teaching
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
The summer of 2011 was a
scary time for Jill Matiskainen.
She had been laid off from
her position at Washington
Elementary when right before
school started she received a
phone call from the Salem-
Keizer school district.
They wanted to know if
Matiskainen would like to
teach at Gubser.
“I was one of the one’s
that was real lucky,” Matis-
kainen said. “I had worked
here (Gubser) before, my kids
went to school here and I live
a block away.”
Matiskainen’s started at
Gubser as a kindergarten in-
structional assistant in 1986.
After hearing from teachers
that she should get her license,
Matiskainen decided to go to
school. She was in her 40s.
“I made my daughter take
my very fi rst class with me,”
Matiskainen said. “She had
just graduated from high
school at McNary and we
went to Chemeketa. I started
with one class and by the end
of the year I was doing fi ve
classes and working full-time
and taking care of my three
kids.”
Through the Career in
Teaching program, Matis-
kainen earned her bachelor’s
degree in management in
organization and master’s in
teaching.
“I’d never been to school
before so it was scary,” Matis-
kainen said. “I did summer. I
just wanted to get through, at
night, weekends, everything.
I did whatever I could to get
through it.”
Matiskainen’s fi rst teaching
job was at St. Vincent de Paul
Catholic School in Salem. Af-
ter seven years, she joined the
Submitted
Ryan Russell, division chief for Keizer Fire, oversaw the lawn project, which due to the work of
fi refi ghters saved the district an estimated $10,000.
Keizer Fire repairs lawn
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Jill Matiskainen is retiring after 13 years as an instructional as-
sistant and seven as a full-time teacher at Gubser Elementary.
faculty at Washington.
Returning to Gubser was
easy.
“There were only like
two teachers left from when
I was here before but I knew
the building so that was re-
ally comfortable,” Matiskainen
said. “The staff here is fabulous
and they just welcomed me.”
Matiskainen taught third
grade.
“I love the growth that
you see at the end of the
year and I just love the kids,”
Matiskainen said. “I like see-
ing them when they come
in and they’re like babies and
then we go through the whole
year and they’re growing and
ready for fourth grade. It’s just
a really rewarding feeling that
you get when you work with
crossword
them.”
The 2017-18 class of Gub-
ser third graders was Matis-
kainen’s last as she announced
her retirement.
“That was horrible,” Matis-
kainen said of her fi nal day. “I
was crying all day. Mixed feel-
ings, I’m glad to be retiring
but yet I’m sad. I’ve done this
for so long.”
While Matiskainen, whose
hobbies include scrapbooking,
sewing and gardening, doesn’t
know exactly what’s next.
She does know where she’ll
be when school starts back in
September—Hawaii.
“I’ve had a wonderful ad-
venture and I worked hard
to get to where I am today,”
Matiskainen said. “It’s been a
great ride.”
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Tired of seeing dead grass
at their station in the sum-
mer and hearing there was
no money to fi x the problem,
Keizer fi refi ghters decided to
take action themselves.
“We’d had this lawn proj-
ect planned for the past four
or fi ve years and have been
trying to do it and there just
hasn’t been the money for it,”
said division chief Ryan Rus-
sell, who oversaw the project.
When Keizer First District
built its new station in 1997,
the lawn was put in on the
top of the old parking lot over
large rocks and asphalt.
“During the summer it all
dies off just because there was
hardly any topsoil there,” Rus-
sell said. “We dug out the rock
and put down new top soil
and seeded it with grass seed.”
The district also had two
large maple trees with not
enough room to grow. R &
R Tree Service removed the
trees and two new smaller
trees were planted in their
place.
“Those maple trees that
were put in should have never
been put in a spot that small,”
Russell said.
“There’s only about 8 foot
of grass there and there’s just
nowhere for the roots to grow.
We’ve got street on one side
and road on the other side.
They were both growing
against the building. There was
nothing to hold them up in a
big wind storm.”
KFD budgeted $3,000 for
the project but spent closer to
$2,000 in materials, and saved
much more in landscaping
cost.
“I bet it’s at least $10,000
in savings,” Russell said. “We
have guys with knowhow
and we had a handful of them
that wanted to take it on and
it worked out perfect. It was
a good morale booster for the
guys. They take pride in what
we do. They were happy to be
involved with it.”
Most of the work was done
by on-duty fi refi ghters during
their regular shifts.
“That’s the really impres-
sive part to me,” Fire Chief Jeff
Cowan said. “They’ve wanted
to do it for a while and they
wanted it to be something
they could really show and be
proud of. You just can’t buy
that.”