Beverly Clark

The following is the second in a three part series covering the 2020 retirees of WISD, honoring them for their service to our community’s children as dedicated teachers, nurses and other staff members.

The new school is beckoning, but one Scudder Elementary teacher will not be making the move. Beverly Clark will be retiring after 15 years teaching there and another couple as a pre-K and substitute. Teaching the young ones puts a gleam in her eyes, even during a telephone interview.

“In second grade you watch them just bloom. There are light bulbs just clicking all over the room. They’re so loving, you’re considered a friend forever,” Beverly said.

She grew up in the Galveston area and graduating from Dickinson High School as well as obtained a Bachelors and Masters degree attending the University of Houston/Clear Lake and the University of Texas at Austin.

“I specialized in Early Childhood. I love the little guys, the messes they are,” she said smiling. Confidentially, Scudder was called the “Wet Works” for the number of bathroom accidents that occur.

She credits her love of teaching to her grandmother who had a private first grade, a perfect place for a young girl who liked to play teacher. “You don’t go into it (teaching) for money.”

Staying around Galveston after college, one of her first jobs in education was in Bacliff, Texas teaching English as a Second Language, “to 95% Vietnamese students.” In doing so, she grew to appreciate the Vietnamese culture and especially the Lunar New Year celebrations.

Then she bought property here in Wimberley in 1983 and planned to live here in Wimberley, “but life got in the way…the house flooded all the time.”

She then entered teaching in Wimberley as a pre-K and substitute teacher for three years then in 2005, she was teaching second grade in Scudder.

She taught first and second grade depending on the needs of the school during her years. But the second graders were the closest to her heart, relating one endearing incident where they showed their humor.

Every teacher knows how hard it is when nature calls. She was trying to accommodate the kids by answering their questions but the call could not be denied. Having been there, it is rare, and leaving the kids alone is not approved, but it happens.

“I had to go, and I told the kids, ’would it kill you to hang on a minute?’ and left. When I got back, the entire class was laying on the floor motionless until one child said, ‘yes it did kill us.’”

She does have regrets about the 2020 end of school. “It was the last nine weeks, I had them right where I wanted them. Saved for the end of the year was all of the fun stuff.” For any teacher, the end of the year usually has field trips and other fun things to do, as the majority of that particular grade’s lessons are completed.

Retirement is another chapter to start and the timing was right. Physically moving to a brand new school is hard as there are always kinks to be worked out and moving is never at the top of anybody’s fun list.

Plans to stay busy include volunteering for the Wimberley Literary Society and teach ESL at the library. But she loves the valley and she loved her time teaching the valley’s little ones.

“We are much more than just a community, but a family. A big messy family, but I love it here.”