Diane Mayland retires after 28 years : Veteran teacher seeks new challenges

SALISBURY — Diane Mayland has presided over room 155 at Salisbury Central School for 28 years. That adds up to about 425 youngsters, mostly first graders.

Mayland took an early retirement offer this year, but don’t use that word around her.

She prefers “rejuvenation.�

While Peggy Heck of the Roaring Brook  Nature Center in Avon told the current first graders all about insects earlier this week, Mayland reminisced about her career.

She graduated (with her future husband, Don) from the University of Vermont in 1967. They were married in 1968, and came to Lakeville in 1970.

Diane Mayland was hired by Salisbury Central in 1981 to teach second grade. She taught third grade as well; then the Maylands took a year off to go abroad.

When they returned, she settled in with the first grade and has been there ever since.

“I’m now teaching the children of my children,� she said.

She gets a lot of waves and toots of horns from passing cars as she power-walks through Lakeville in the afternoon.

“Happens all the time,� she said. “I know everybody — I love that about a small town.�

The Maylands lived on the Hotchkiss campus for 20 years — Don Mayland taught economics — and Diane developed her passion for tennis, both the standard and paddle varieties.

“The courts were right there, I thought, might as well take advantage.�

The Maylands have two grown children — Susie and Kirt — who both went to SCS.

“I was a mother first,� said Mayland. “I think that makes a difference.

“I would never say anything to a child I wouldn’t say to my own.�

Mayland said that the education business has changed, noting that when she got her certification (after five years of part-time study at Central Connecticut State University and summer classes in Vermont), teaching certificates covered all elementary and middle-school grades, from kindergarten to grade eight.

“Now it’s more specialized, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

“You’ve got to love teaching,� she added. “Because it can be a long nine months — for everybody.�

She’s going out on a high note; her class this year is small, with just 10 students, all girls, with “wonderful, supportive parents.�

As part of the “rejuvenation� process, the Maylands will spend more time at their Vermont place, on Lake Champlain.

But she’s not getting out of the education business completely.

She’s going to substitute at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

She was offered substitute duty at Salisbury Central but she turned it down. “I can’t walk into a primary classroom that’s not mine.�

The high school gig offers flexibility, she said. “And besides, I’ll know half of them already.�

She said she’ll use the same approach with the older students. “I let them know I have high expectations, and I’m fair.�