By Amy Eddings
In Dr. Suzanne Darmer’s office, there was a large pink hatbox crammed with colorful handmade cards from Ada’s 1st through 6th graders. She pulled one out and read it out loud.
“‘You did an awesome job, we will miss you,’” she said, her voice growing thick with emotion. “Merry Christmas, sincerely, Robert. Eight years old.”
Another one read, “Great job! Have fun in your retirement!” written in perfect block letters.
“My heart is just so full of joy and tenderness!” she exclaimed. “It means they’ve opened their hearts to me, and vice-versa. It means we’ve walked through the last 10 years together.”
Darmer, 65, the superintendent of the Ada Exempted School District, is retiring at the end of the year after a decade of service in Ada and more than 30 years in education.
“It’s an emotional time,” she said, fingertips flying to her cheeks to brush away tears.
Darmer came to Ada in January, 2007. She replaced Raymond Getz, who had resigned after he was charged with operating a vehicle while impaired. She had been an assistant superintendent for Greenville’s schools. Most of her career has been spent in an administrative role.
She saw it as a natural evolution of her beginnings as a kindergarten teacher.
“It’s all about representing student needs as I went about my business,” she said.
She still carries a special affection for little ones, especially the district’s new preschool class, which serves nearly 30 children.
“When they come running in here in the morning with cheerful expressions and little words of joy, it thrills my heart,” said Darmer. “People in the office, if I disappear, they say, ‘Well, she’s gone to see the preschoolers again!’”
Besides the addition of a preschool, Darmer said she’s proud of the way the district has improved student engagement, with innovations such as student-led parent-teacher conferences at the elementary school level and “aspiration team” meetings between high school students and staff. She kept an emphasis on music, art and athletics, even as federal and state lawmakers increasingly focused on student test scores. She successfully steered the district through two accreditation reviews.
“Ada has always been an exceptional school district,” she said. “It was my goal to appreciate past success, to work through the present realities and challenges, and set the stage for continued success in the future.”
Continued success will mean improving the district’s attainment of the federal and state governments’ ever-changing demands. The district has maintained either an “effective” rating or a B grade in achievement for most of Darmer’s tenure, with “excellent” ratings for the 2010 and 2011 academic years. Its grade slipped to a C in 2015-2016, which Darmer said was due to new, tougher standards that negatively affected school districts statewide.
In 2014-2015, before the new standards, Ada’s students met 87.9 percent of the state test indicators, an improvement over the 63.3 percent achieved by students in 2006-2007, when Darmer became superintendent.
“We have made steady, incremental progress on our school report card,” she wrote in a letter to parents earlier this fall.
The Ada School Board voted Dec. 22 to hire Meri Skilliter as superintendent, starting Jan. 1. Skilliter has been McComb's superintendent since 2013.
While Ada students have encouraged their departing superintendent to have “great fun” in her retirement, Suzanne Darmer is not sure what she’ll do next.
“My plan is to figure out my plan!” she said with a little laugh.
Former goals were upended earlier this year when her longtime love, Roger Walker, died of a heart attack in March. He was 62. Walker and Darmer were going to marry after she retired. She said she has kept her grief to herself, in order to stay strong for her staff and students.
Darmer, who was previously married, has two grown children and three grandchildren, one born just a month ago. She plans on spending more time being a grandmother.
And Darmer said she’ll pore over all those scrawled messages of good will and appreciation from her “school family.”
“I will read every card. I will read every single card,” she said.
