Taylor teacher retires after 54 years
Sandra Lumpkin retired from the Taylor Independent School District for the first time in 2000 and the second time in 2009. Now a pre-algebra teacher at St. Mary’s Catholic School, Lumpkin says the end of this school year will be her final retirement.
When asked what kept bringing her back to the classroom, Lumpkin said, “It’s the kids. I love them.”
Between her exits from the schoolhouse, Lumpkin worked one year in Austin at the Region 13 Education Service Center as a math coach, but soon realized she missed the children. Lumpkin returned to the classroom and her students the following year.
During a career that began in 1970, Lumpkin has taught grades six through 10, but she prefers middle school — an age group many consider difficult, but not Lumpkin.
“I love, love, love middle school kids,” she said. “I love their curiosity, their independence, their willingness to try new things. You never know what they’re going to be like from day to day because middle school starts that changing.”
Lumpkin has taught many in the community, including Taylor ISD’s recently retired community liaison Tim Crow, himself a 40-year education veteran.
“I taught him and his sister,” Lumpkin said.
Lumpkin was Tim Crow’s sixth grade math teacher and he said it was amazing to him that they were both retiring the same year.
“Sandra Lumpkin is one of the best,” Crow said.
Math was his least favorite subject in school and Crow felt he often struggled with it.
“But I didn’t struggle in Mrs. Lumpkin’s class. Not only did she know math and know it well, but she also knew how to teach math. I think that’s why she hasn’t been able to retire before now. Schools needed her and her skills to help students succeed,” Crow said.
St. Mary’s Head of School Heidi Altman is also a former pupil of Lumpkin’s, as is executive assistant Trey Boles and many other staff and parents.
Boles said, “In my five years of working at St. Mary’s, Mrs. Lumpkin has become not only my former teacher, but also a colleague. This dynamic is very interesting to me because I could never see myself as being even near the same ‘level’ as her because of how much respect and love I have for her. In fact, I will never be able to call her by her first name no matter how old I am because she will always be Mrs. Lumpkin to me, even though I doubt she would care if I called her Sandra.”
Boles added Lumpkin was one of the most influential teachers of his life.
“I know she truly cares and loves each of her former students and genuinely wants us all to succeed,” he said.
Lumpkin said teaching is a calling for her and she believes God has called her to do it.
Her mother always knew she was going to be a teacher, Lumpkin added. Having much older brothers and sisters meant Lumpkin was already an aunt when she began school.
“In second grade, I’d come home from school, sit all of my nieces and nephews down and teach them what I’d learned in school that day,” she said.
She doesn’t have any immediate plans after her exit, although she will now have more time to read and play puzzles.
“I want to exercise my brain,” she said.
Her favorite books are murder mysteries, which she tries to solve before she reaches the end. Being a math teacher, her favorite puzzles are sudoku.
Lumpkin gets tearyeyed as she considers her retirement, especially since a friend, also a retired educator, told her, “Wait until August, when everyone goes back and you don’t. That’s when it’s going to hurt.”
Her husband died nine years ago, and they had no children. The school and her learners are a connection she doesn’t want to give up.
While Lumpkin is adamant this retirement is her last, she said, “I don’t need to teach every day anymore, but I will still my miss my kids.”
She won’t be completely absent from class — Lumpkin intends to work as a substitute teacher.
