Squinting into the morning sun is not something these La Grande High School educators are accustomed to while traveling to work.

Principal Doug Potter and social studies teacher Jerry Sebestyen have long been two of LHS’s earliest risers – educators who often arrive at work before sunrise.

Educators accustomed to 5:45 a.m. chats at LHS over freshly brewed coffee.

Chats lively to the last drop.

“We had great early morning talks about all kinds of things,” Potter said.

The often pre-dawn conversations, like slide rules and vinyl records, are now part of the past. The school year is over and Potter and Sebestyen are retiring.

Sebestyen is concluding a teaching career that spanned more than 30 years, the last 27 at La Grande High School. Potter is winding up a 30-year education career, the final 14 of which he worked in the La Grande School District.

Neither of the two educators has settled on their future plans. Sebestyen intends to stay in La Grande and would like to do an increased amount of community service work with his wife, Sharon Evoy.

Potter plans to move to Portland with his wife, Jody. A longtime angling enthusiast, Potter is considering working in a fly fishing shop or a bookstore.

The spector of the unknown intrigues Potter following a structured career.

“It is kind of exciting not knowing,” Potter said.

Potter and Sebestyen’s colleagues well know what the two have meant to LHS. Many praise them for their uncanny knack for establishing connections with students.

Sebestyen reaches students with help from an exceptional memory, said LHS French and English teacher Kevin Cahill.

“He remembers all his students and the year they graduated. Jerry knows everybody,” Cahill

said. “They know he knows. His connection is a gift.”

Sebestyen’s strong ties to students are a big reason why seniors twice selected him as their graduation speaker. This indicates that students appreciated what the social studies teacher was striving to accomplish in the classroom.

“It is not the content that is important to analyze. It is getting kids to think of setting goals and developing a feeling of value and self worth. It is more important that kids feel confident of their skills than that they know the exact dates of the Civil War,” Sebestyen said.

Sebestyen’s former students include Chelsee Rohan, now a counselor at LHS. Rohan said Sebestyen is adept at speaking in a classroom setting.

“He has a great voice and cadence. His stage presence in front of his students is wonderful,” Rohan said.

The connection Potter established with students was often evident at commencement. Seniors enjoyed kidding him about his love of the New York Yankees. This year a student presented Potter with a life-size cut out of Yankee star Derek Jeter. The cutout was topped with a Boston Red Sox cap. The Red Sox, of course, are the Yankees’ hated rival.

Whether it was baseball or class schedules, Potter clearly enjoyed give and take with

students.

“You can’t teach it (how to have a rapport with the students). If you don’t like being around kids you are in the wrong business,” Potter said.

Richie Scott, who graduated this year as a co-valedictorian, said he was impressed with how Potter welcomed students’ opposing views on subjects.

“Even though he was seen as the main authority figure at LHS, he showed me that if he was wrong, he should be challenged,” Scott said at commencement.

Scott also spoke highly of Potter’s poise in the midst of a sometimes chaotic high school setting.

“He has taught me that reason can still prevail even in the zoo of a high school,” Scott said.

Potter came to La Grande from the Beaverton School District in 1995. He served as principal of La Grande Middle School for five years before taking a position as the district’s curriculum director. Potter took the LHS reins in 2001.

Sebestyen and Potter, like all educators, faced significant challenges during their careers. Potter noted that working as an educator became harder as his career progressed because of escalating education funding problems in Oregon.

He said that the excellent jobs teachers have done in the face of such problems is one of many reasons he has immense respect for them.’

Despite frequent challenges, Potter and Sebestyen speak with a sense of gratification when recounting their careers.

Sebestyen believes he could not have picked a more meaningful career path.

“I probably will never do anything as important as I have done the last 30 years,” Sebestyen said. “I can’t imagine doing anything in my working life but teaching. It is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done.”