STEVE ESSIG: From Sept. 1961 our class shrank from 121 members to the remaining 40 who became the first St. Patrick's College graduation at Mt. View's Chapel in May 1969. That group split in half; I was one of the twenty who left in the summer of 1969.

I attended Hayward State and San Jose State that fall, tying to obtain a secondary teaching credential. After student teaching, I decided that teenage hormones weren't for me, so I dropped San Jose State and attended only Hayward to obtain an Early Childhood credential. My CO status was approved in early 1969 and in early 1970 my directive to start alternate service arrived in the mail. I spent my two years at St. Frances de Sales school at the Cathedral in Oakland working time as custodial and the sharing teaching the first grade class with the principal. I also taught adults at night for Oakland Public School. My credential work and alternative service were completed in early 1972. I married Barbara and became instant step father to LaMar. I began to seek that first teaching job.

In 1971 and 1972 I worked the summer months as camp director for the Oakland Boys Clubs resident camp on Shasta Lake. I found that minority and bi-lingual were job interview requirements in the Bay Area at that time. So I decided to stay in Shasta County after camp in 1972 and look for that first teaching job. It came on October 8, an overflow kindergarten class of 29, 26 boys and 3 girls, 7 total on retalin, hand picked by kindergarten teachers at three other sites. After this year of fire, I remained teaching in the Enterprise School District for another 27 years. My daughter Stephanie was born in 1974. In 1979, that marriage ended. I had the two kids most of the next 4 years. I took on Jennifer as a foster child.

Then in 1982, I met Charlene and we were married between the mash potatoes and the turkey on Thanksgiving dinner in 1983. This brought another three step children: Annette, Steven, and Tim. Steve, Steven, and Stephanie. We had a household of 6 kids, and in 1984, John was on the way. Jennifer moved back to her dad's.

In 1988, I became the principal of the elementary school where I had done most of my primary grade teaching. In 1992 through 1996, I became the principal investigator and staff developer of a rural initiative National Science Foundation teacher enhancement project that involved 100 teachers per year in 25 school teams from the 9 northeast counties. This was connected with the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley and their great science curricula. In fact, on one trip there, my youngest, John, at age 10, looked down on the bay from the Lawrence Hall Courtyard and stated: "Dad, I am going to school here." Sure enough, John graduated from Cal and the Cal Band in May 2004.

In 1996, I started my first charter school which was a 50% home study-50% classroom program with lots of outdoor education, and in 2000, I started my second charter school which was 100% site based and outdoor oriented. On May 1, 2005, after 32.33 years, I retired under STRS. Haven't looked back at school. 

Wanting to do something entirely different, I have started my own handyman business, MELIO, (you figure out the latin root), and this keeps me busy. Five of my six children and my foster child are college graduates and are doing well. I have one probation officer, one Cal Trans engineer, one city housing manager, one graphic artist and web developer becoming a teacher, and one architect, one classroom aide and home mom, and one home mom. It is more exciting to talk about my 8 grandchildren ages 2 to 14 (plus two from the foster, ages 4 and 6). Grandchildren are God's great blessing: Spoil them and get revenge on your children. Fortunately, all 10 are in California.

s.c.essig@sbcglobal.net