Science teacher announces retirement over the summer

 

While the big story on campus last year may have been the retirement of longtime assistant principal Karen Hyde, the school  saw another one of its longtime staff members announce his surprise retirement over the summer.

After 33 years as a teacher—the last 17 and a half at Saratoga—Chemistry Honors and Ap Biology teacher Robert Kucer formally retired last June. Kucer decided to announce his retirement in an inconspicuous way.

“I wasn't sure if I really wanted or was able to retire.  I still had some financial questions to get answered and think about,” Kucer said. “I wanted to see how I felt about retiring once the year was over, and I wanted to see what my teaching schedule would be.” 

Kucer said that the major reasons for his retirement had to do with the amount of time he would need to adjust the AP Bio course. 

“I knew that I would retire for sure within the next three years,” Kucer said. “With the College Board changing the curriculum, and with our current text needing replacement, I knew I would be doing a lot of work to prepare the class the way I wanted. I just didn’t see the rationale for doing all this work and then immediately retiring.”

Although students often found Kucer's courses to be among the hardest on campus, many would agree that he had a knack for making them fun and developing everlasting bonds with his students.

2011 SHS graduate Eric Chuang said, “It's like the big brother who tortured you all the time suddenly went away. It hurt, but it was a special bond that hurt in a loving way.”

Senior Lauren Chu said, “Kucer leaving was very unexpected for everyone, especially when he has always talked about how he's going to do this and that differently next year.”

Although Chu found Kucer's AP Bio class challenging, she regrets that future students will not go through “the Kucer experience.”

“He was a good teacher who knew his subject well,” Chu said. “His class is really interesting with his stories and randomness, but he also prepares you really well for the AP test.”

Longtime teacher and head of the science department Jenny Garcia said that Kucer will be deeply missed from the science department. After the sudden announcement of his retirement, the school had to scramble to hire a new Chemistry Honors teacher.

“The hiring had to be done in the summer, which is not the ideal time to hire teachers,” Garcia said. “The good news is that we are thrilled with Ms. [Janny] Cahatol and she has been a great replacement for teaching honors chemistry.”

“As for me personally, I’ll miss his quick wit in our conversations and department meetings,” Garcia said.  “I’ll also miss how we would trick the students into thinking he’d be teaching AP physics or AP chemistry the following school year, as well as his wardrobe consistency.”

In terms of post-retirement plans and adventures, Kucer said that he plans to do a bit of tutoring, as well as subbing here and there. 

“I don’t have some any big plans although I am hoping to go see the polar bears in Churchill, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 2013,” Kucer said. “Mostly, the plans are to stop the incessant mental push and learn to not care if something takes me an extra 30 minutes to complete.”

Kucer admits that he does miss a number of aspects of teaching.

“I miss the laughter with the students and I miss writing challenging test questions to see how the students will do.  I miss finding new labs for both Chem H and AP Bio students,” said Kucer.  

But most of all, Kucer said, “I miss my personal thought that goes something like this, ‘I wonder which students are really getting what is going on in here?  Which students are realizing they have to change how they approach studying to get through this class?’  I miss seeing ‘the change.’”