WOOD LAWN - June 16 marks the end of an era at Woodlawn High School as longtime teachertumed- counselor Karen Talent retires after 38 years with the district.With most of her office cleaned out and memories packed up, she still spent her last day working. She prepared the rollover for the next school year to make the load a little lighter for the person to fill her shoes in the counselor’s office.Talent came to Woodlawn School District at the beginning of the 1988-89 school year to teach science. At the time, she was not married and her earliest students still call her “Ms. White.”“I laugh and tell them I know how old they are by what they call me,” Talent said.She taught biology, chemistry, physics,and anatomy for 17 years before transitioning to high school counselor in 2004.After being at the same school for 38 years, a lot of generational connections are formed.“I am on the third generation of some families that have come through Woodlawn. Many of my former students are now my coworkers. One even became my boss,” she said.“Bettie Hoover who taught at Woodlawn for 40 years gave me the advice - when you get the grandkids of the kids you taught, it’s time to retire.”So she did. In the earliest years at Woodlawn, Talent was often called upon to teach all grade levels in the high school. She jokes about some unfortunate students having her as a teacher every year from seventh grade until they graduated.When asked about some of her favorite memories, Talent described the time she was told by administration that she couldn’t take her class on an overnight trip to Physics Day at Six Flags Over Texas. She and the students, along with their parents, raised enough money to fly her entire Physics class to Dallas and back in the same day.“We were gone for approximately 23 hours, but we didn’t spend the night,” she laughed.She also recalls some of her students (who stil...
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