Robert Smith has been at school every day since 1974.
Whether as a student, a gym and health teacher, a basketball coach or most recently as a grounds worker, Smith has made a tremendous impact on the educational environment around him.
Earlier this year, Smith made the hard decision to retire.
While he wanted to be able to spend more time with his family at home, he ultimately had to choose to leave his family here at ELHS. In the process of his retirement, he was made aware that he had only taught for 29.9 years, and in order to receive his pension, he was required to have instructed for 30 in total.
After talking with Superintendent Dori Leyko, a compromise was made: Smith would work grounds over the summer.
“If I would have chosen to come back and teach, I would have only come back for two months,” Smith said. “Then they would have had to find another teacher, which isn’t the best case for anyone.”
On Sept. 5, Smith technically reached his required 30 years of service, but due to delays in reporting, he had to continue doing grounds work for a few more weeks.
“It’s frustrating because when I originally talked to the Michigan Office of Retirement Services, I was told I would only have to work through July,” Smith said. “Then there was a miscalculation and suddenly it became mid-September.”
Such setbacks have not only put a rift in his post retirement plans, but have also had an effect on Smith’s family life.
“My family has moved two hours away and that’s forced me to do a lot of commuting,” Smith said. “My son’s 15 and runs cross country. I have to commute to see his meets and be a part of his life, which is really frustrating.”
While this unforeseen change in plans has been inconvenient, it didn’t make Smith any less eager to begin working.
When Smith first began working grounds early this summer, he was given a zero turn motor, a golf cart, a Bobcat, a weed whacker, a leaf blower and a chainsaw.
“The first thing I had to do was learn how to work everything, then I just started making lists of things to do,” Smith said. “I would just go around each day and check things off my to-do list, almost as if I was at my house except for [it was] a really giant house.”
Smith had many tasks to complete throughout his day. He started off every morning by driving around the school on his golf cart, picking up every piece of trash in sight.
“I really like the idea of leaving something better behind than when I found it,” Smith said. “I came here 27 years ago, and I’ve always tried to do a good job with everything that I did, but one thing that I noticed was there’s a real need for somebody to make sure that all the garbage is picked up.”
While doing grounds work in order to receive his pension was unexpected, the new outlook it gave him on life was even more so.
“I always felt the stress of going in and having to teach and worry about lesson plans and dealing with kids and students and admin,” Smith said. “When you’re on the outside looking in, you realize how much goes into providing an atmosphere for the kids to thrive in school.”
His time working grounds has not only given him a new view, but it’s also given him a new appreciation for grounds work.
This feeling was so compelling it gave Smith a few new ideas as to what he wants to do post retirement.
“I have options,” Smith said. “If I sit out for six months I can actually draw my pension and go teach some more and get paid to teach. But I told my wife that I really like being outside and the pay is only about half of what I made as a teacher, which is difficult but I really do enjoy it.”
Even though Smith’s retirement plans are not yet set in stone, one thing is: his love for our school.
“Without question, there’s no better school than East Lansing,” Smith said. “I can’t imagine how I’m gonna replace that feeling of being a part of the East Lansing family because there’s just so many good people and there’s so much tradition. That’s what I really am going to miss.”
