From waking up early in the morning to watching their students grow, teachers spend most of the week with students impacting their lives and preparing them for the future. They have the chance to watch a student start high school and then see them graduate. This year, students are going to watch three teachers leave the school.

The three teachers that are leaving this year are biology teacher Craig Atkison, calculus teacher KC Hastings and band and chorus director Keith Kovalic. Atkison and Hastings are officially retiring at the end of the school year. Meanwhile, Kovalic is taking half a year of medical leave and sick days for health issues next year before retiring.

Atkison has been teaching for 30 years and has been at Freedom for 26 of those years. Before teaching at Freedom, he was teaching at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). Atkison got his degree in biology at Penn State University and his science education degree at Pitt. After retiring, Atkison plans to spend his time riding bikes, fishing, hunting and scuba diving.

“Watching kids grow up, I mean they start off as freshmen and all of a sudden they mature into young adults,” Atkison said when asked what he would miss about Freedom.

Hastings has been teaching for 40 years and started in Jan 1980. She has been working at Freedom since Sept 2001. She got her degree in mathematics at Towson University. In addition to her mathematics degree, Hastings also minored in secondary education. She also got a masters equivalent by taking 30 grad credits at a multitude of schools including Towson.

After she retires, she plans on going to the beach, reading books, starting a book club and learning to write in calligraphy. She also plans on spending time with her grandchildren. She will be moving to her new house in North Carolina, which she recently purchased, after school ends.

After Hastings leaves, she will miss the people at Freedom, attending sporting events and working with students one-on-one.

“I’ll miss doing math with kids because I thoroughly enjoy teaching math,” Hastings.

Mathematics teachers Ed Majors and Amanda Bovard will both be taking on some of Hastings’ classes; for example, Majors will be teaching AP Calculus next year.

Middle school band director Rob James will be officially taking over Kovalic’s band class along with his own. Elementary music teacher Jennifer Newman will be taking over as choir director.