After 17 years, French to retire from Watsessing School

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Coleen French, the administrative secretary and self-described “chief cook and bottle washer” at Watsessing Elementary School, will be retiring at the end of this month. French has worked in the school district for 17 years.

She started in 1999 at the administrative building where she helped establish the administrative services department. For the last 10 years, she has been at Watsessing. Prior to her district employment she worked for the Point Pleasant Recreation Department.

She grew up on Long Island and move to Bloomfield in the ‘70s. She came to the township after marrying Anthony French, a Bloomfield Police Department officer who retired as a captain eight years ago. They have been married for 45 years.
“I met my husband on a blind date,” she said. “My best girlfriend was his cousin. We met at a high school graduation party in 1969.”

They moved to the Shore area in the ‘80s and returned to Bloomfield in 1998.
French said the work of an administrative secretary has changed over the years, as has the school environment.

“Society has changed to make us more aware of our surroundings,” she said earlier this week at the school. “Security in this school is the No. 1 priority. And the workload has increased dramatically for all secretary and office aides. There’s so much more technology we have to learn. We also have to train in different programs.”

But she said once her work day is over, it’s over. “I cut it off when I’m home,” she said. “After nine hours, you have to shut it off at some point.”

Although both her parents were teachers, French does not know why she chose to work for a school district except to say that she likes children. They were also a big part of her job in Point Pleasant. But she feels now is the time for her to retire.
“My husband has been retired for a number of years,” she said. “Do it while you’re young.”

She will be moving away shortly after saying goodbye.
“We’re moving out of state to New Hampshire, by Newfound Lake,” she said.
Her new home was purchased in December 2016. She is scheduled to move July 26.

“No income tax, no state tax,” she said. “‘Live free or die,’ that’s the motto of New Hampshire.”

Her new home is on five acres of land. The house is small, like her Bloomfield home. Where she is headed, she said, will be like going back to a Norman Rockwell era. She has been visiting New Hampshire for five or six weeks every summer for more than 30 years.

“When you get older, you want a simpler life,” she said. “You forget what it’s like to have a simpler life. That’s where we’re going. And I would rather go up north than Florida. Too hot and humid. No thank you.”

French has seen many Bloomfield
children grow up and has gotten to know them.

“For a lot of them, the school is their safe haven,” she said. “They want to come to school and interact with the staff. Some just need a little more love. Sometimes that goes for parents, too. Sometimes kids just want to talk for five minutes, one-on-one. Maybe they’re having a bad day or something good happened to them over the weekend. You hope you’ve given them something to help them.”

Many of the children, when they are students at the middle school, she said, will drop by Watsessing to tell her how much they miss their old elementary school.
For the last 17 years, around the second week in August, she said she was getting ready for school. And she leaves the district with 166 unused personal days. But for September 2017, she has no plans.

“I’ll wait and see,” she said. “Maybe do some volunteer work.”
With a daughter in Boston and a son down the Jersey Shore, French does not think she will returning to Bloomfield any time soon.

But among the belongings packed for the trip north will be her memories of Watsessing Elementary School.

“Everyone that comes here finds the place warm and friendly,” she said. “I’ve made some remarkable friendships that I’ll hold forever.”

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Daniel Jackovino

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