Mrs. Ottaviani prepares for retirement

Mrs. Ottaviani, a teacher of 23 years, is retiring at the end of this school year. She has been the chemistry teacher at Hamburg for many years and students say she has done an excellent job educating. She has mixed feelings about retiring, she is sad and excited at the same time. She is excited to be able to do more things she enjoys outside of school such as spending time with her husband and family, tending to horses, painting, and art. She is also sad because she will miss the students and their humor, the great advancements the school is headed to with the science program, and her colleagues’ support. “I’m sad I will be missing all the great things there are to come in the future with the science program. I also hope to see more choices for students to choose what they are interested in so they can play to their strengths.” She added, “ The science program has been moving in a great direction, but with Covid, things have been slowed and pushed back from where the science teachers want to be.”

      While she is sad she is leaving and will miss her students and colleagues she has many great memories working here. Her most memorable moment was when she realized she was “old.” She had just passed back a test and “a student received a bad grade and started cursing, so I turned around and asked who it was. Then a student next to him said, ‘It wasn’t me; I would never swear in front of an old lady.’” She says this stuck with her because the student was not being mean, just brutally honest. During this time she was only in her early 40’s. 

     When she retires, Mr. Laughlin, a teacher of 27 total years and four years in Hamburg, will take over teaching chemistry. He plans to “run new labs and teach more how and why things work instead of just what we know. Also grading will be different.” Mr. Laughlin and Mrs. Ottaviani met over 20 years ago over the summer while working in an environmental lab together. Mr. Laughlin is the one who encouraged her to go into teaching because there was an opening at Minersville HS. “Mrs. Ottaviani is an amazing teacher and will be missed very much. I will have tough shoes to fill” stated Mr. Laughlin. Mrs. Ottaviani has touched the hearts of many students and will be missed by many. Even though she is retiring she still plans on attending football games when she can and spending time with colleagues.