Brent DeNeice to Retire

Although Brent DeNeice has been working with students for most of his adult life, teaching is his third career. DeNeice has been teaching for 24 years and 22 of those have been at City. Although he is retiring from his position as a special education teacher at City, he still plans to keep working after he leaves.

“l love what I’m doing, but I felt it was time for a change. Retiring for me isn’t retiring in the traditional way, since I’m moving on to something new. I may do some landscaping jobs, substitute teach, work at Menards, or privately work with some of the families I am working with now,” DeNeice said.

As a special education teacher, DeNeice’s job varied day-to-day.

“What the job entailed daily was assisting and supporting my students and the staff that works with them. Sometimes I was a teacher, sometimes I was a social worker, and other days I was a friend,” DeNeice said.

Throughout his 22 years at City, DeNeice enjoyed watching the growth of his students.

“Typically, teachers see a consistent growth within the semester for their students. For me, I generally have students for up to six years in some cases. The growth of my students isn’t always that quick, so it is really rewarding to see the growth they do make,” DeNeice said.

“Although someone on the outside looking in wouldn’t see a lot of growth over the course of a semester, for my students it’s a lot.” Because the growth of his students is not always the quickest, DeNeice is proud of the things they do learn over the course of a year. “We are still doing academic work, but it’s à different style of work,” DeNeice said. “General education students may be writing essays, however, for us we are learning how to handle money, fill out a job application, and doing vocational training as well.” Even though DeNeice loved his job, he did  have a critique of the position.

“I think that one of the things that I would like to see is one person that is a coordinator for the staff,” DeNeice said. “There are five paraprofessionals in my group and I would like to see the district hire a coordinator for the staff so we all stay organized.”

Throughout his career, DeNeice was well respected by those who he worked with. Tom Braverman, another special education teacher at City, worked with DeNeice for 13 years and felt that DeNeice always put in the extra mile for his work.

“He is one of the kindest people I’ve ever meant, and he will go above and beyond for his students. For years and years, he would come in to work at 6:30 in the morning an work until six at night, as well as work on Sundays so he could be prepared for his students and modify their curriculum so they could be active participants,” Braverman said.

During their time working together, Braverman viewed DeNeice as an exemplar of what a special education teacher should be.

“A lot of students he works with are non-communicative or not great readers so he works hard on activities that engage them. He would spend hours on an activity that the students would be done with in a few minutes,” Braverman said.

“He just wanted them to not only be exposed to the core curriculum that everybody is doing, but teach it in a way they could actually engage them. I’ve learned a lot from him and his commitment to his craft is something I hope to match someday.”

During the time that DeNeice taught at City, he felt connected to the people and the building.

“I’ve certainly enjoyed working with the former principal Mark Hanson and John Bacon,” DeNeice said. “There is something about this building that’s special and it’s cool to see how far [the building] has progressed since I’ve come here.”