Five teachers will be retiring in June from the Sauk Prairie School District, two from Spruce Street Elementary, one from Grand Avenue and one from each of the middle and high schools.

Vicki Gullickson grew up in Sauk Prairie and taught for 28 years. She spent part of her career as a reading teacher at Winneconne and taught second grade at Sauk Prairie's Spruce Street.

Gullickson started as a "traveling teacher" in the district. She has loved teaching but looks forward to more time with her dad, husband and daughter and "exploring interests with more flexibility" of time.

Sue Zimmerman, also retiring from Spruce Street, has 30 years overall in teaching. For seven years Zimmerman was a kindergarten aide. She has taught in combination classrooms at Merrimac in a fifth/sixth grade combination classroom, in "looped" situations at Spruce Street and in a regular classroom for one year in grade three.

Zimmerman has taught with eight different principals and teamed one year each with Craig Bender, superintendent.

What will she miss the most? "Working with children and colleagues." Paperwork and assessments are what she will miss the least.

Subbing and volunteering are on her agenda for the future, "choosing what I want to do and when I want to do it."

Edie Benusa is retiring after 24 years in the Sauk Prairie School District as a special education teacher but has taught a total of 26 and a half years in Wisconsin as well as in another state. Her husband also has retired and they look forward to spending some time in Arizona.

The couple raises llamas which will still occupy their time. She looks forward to volunteering in retirement.

Rick Davidson is completing his 40th year of teaching. Davidson has taught in five buildings in the school district, starting at Black Hawk Elementary in 1968 at the age of 19 making $4,900.

Other schools in which he taught were Tower Rock, Madison Street Elementary, Spruce Street and the middle school. 

He has taught in seven different classrooms in the district with his love of social studies. Still wanting to stay in teaching, he would like to teach in a private school.

Graduating from the same high school as Davidson, Westby High School, Milo Kilen is retiring from the high school's technology education and engineering department after 29 years of teaching. 

Besides Sauk Prairie he taught eight years at Kenosha Junior High School and spent two years in the service. Kilen will miss his colleagues and the students but not the paperwork.

He plans on "subbing" in the technical education department and looks forward to traveling with his wife this fall.

The seven retirees represent more than 153 year of experience.