Clayton High School’s Retiring Teachers

This year marks Jennifer Sellenriek’s 28th year at Clayton. 2022 happens to be her year of retirement and final year of teaching English. Not only has she made a major impact on the students in the Clayton School District, but also the face of the Clayton literacy curriculum. Sellenriek’s first teaching job was in 1993 and then moved to teach at Clayton in January of 1995. She hasn’t left...

Betsy Baer has recently announced her retirement from the Clayton High School Library. She has spent the last 17 years working in our library, and even longer working in our district. Since she first became a member of our Clayton School District in 1999, she has been making students’ experiences– in school and in the library– better. This year, she has made the decision to retire, and begin...

After 11 years of assisting CHS seniors in their transition out of high school, Mary Modzelewski (aka Modz) is preparing to make her own transition to retirement. Prior to coming to Clayton, Modz worked at several different schools and universities. She started as a high school teacher, and from there, worked close to family in St. Louis at Washington University. She traveled all across the country...

“I’m probably the only teacher who has been hired three times and retired two times at Clayton,” said Pieper.  Pieper was involved in journalism from an early age. Starting in high school, she was on the newspaper, the yearbook staff, and even participated in the radio program.  “I started taking some journalism classes and just really, really loved it. I loved the writing process and inte...

Beth Scott, the principal of Glenridge, is retiring after 14 years, but something most people would not know about her was that she used to be an art teacher before she became the principal. Scott has been an educator for around 40 years. She taught art in three different elementary schools until Scott’s father told her, “I know you like being an art teacher, but I think you do want to be a...

or many American teaching professionals who have spent their lives dedicated to sharing their knowledge and wisdom with young people, the prospect of retirement can seem a sobering and bittersweet reality. Although the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic have certainly made teaching the last two years less than ideal, AP environmental science teacher Chuck Collis is laying down his gradebook with...

Julie Geissler spent 18 years at Clayton as the Speech-Language pathologist.  She worked three different jobs before deciding to go to graduate school after earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology, obtaining a degree in speech pathology. “My bachelor’s degree was in Psychology, and when I was thinking about graduate school, the job market was really tough,” said Geissler.  She ha...