By Kathleen McAleese

Paul Poisson, a chemistry teacher at Westford Academy will be retiring at the end of this year. A veteran teacher of thirty-eight years, Poisson began his teaching career at WA fresh out of college. Although there have been bumps along the way, “I don’t regret a single day here,” said Poisson.

Poisson is leaving WA for a combination of reasons. These include his wife’s sickness with cancer and his growing frustration with the direction of education.

Diagnosed late last year, Mrs. Poisson has recently lost her sight and it is necessary for Mr. Poisson to leave his job here and take a new role as primary care giver.

Poisson’s retirement isn’t a big secret to students and staff and neither is his wife’s illness, but Poisson’s growing frustration with the direction of education is not such a well known fact. He is growing tired of the advisory days and other missed opportunities to teach. According to Poisson, teachers are being put under more and more pressure to teach the same amount of material with less time and still have the students understand all of it.

WA has been a major part of Poisson’s life for the past thirty eight years, WA having been constantly changing for most of this time. For one, the size of the school has practically doubled since the start of his career. The amount of students attending WA has practically doubled and there are not as many familiar faces.

As for the students’ character, to Poisson, practically nothing has changed. The students at WA are the same great kids that they were in the beginning.

“Students and faculty are topnotch,” said Poisson.

For this soon-to-be-retired teacher, it’s hard to compare WA to other schools due to the fact that this has been his one and only teaching job but has “never once felt threatened by any students” and has grown very close to many of his coworkers.

The bond Poisson holds with many of his fellow teachers is more than a person he works beside, many of these people are great friends as well.

“The amount of support I have got from the people I work beside is amazing. They have helped me through a lot,” said Poisson.