Two teachers who spent a combined 62 years at the Shoreline Unified School District are retiring next week. Social science and history teacher Fred Gilardi and life science teacher Bernard Gregoris saw thousands of students come and go. Their classrooms transformed from having chalkboards to being online, and the curriculum evolved. But one thing that didn’t change was their strong ability to relate to and engage with kids, even the shy ones. Decades later, former students have fond memories of their classes.
“They are both great teachers that are going to be sorely missed,” said Tim Kehoe, a Point Reyes dairyman and school board trustee for the last 20 years. He learned to drive from Mr. Gilardi in the ‘70s, when drivers’ ed was still taught in schools, and he hosted Mr. Gregoris’s cousin from France for a summer because she wanted to experience living on a ranch.
Both teachers valued hands-on teaching, which was made difficult during the pandemic. Their last year was their hardest yet, and less than half of their students returned to campus. They are replaced by new hires who spent time in their classroom as student teachers: Ally Sherman, to teach science, and Paul Davis, to teach social science.
Connecting and motivating
Bernard Gregoris grew up on a small ranch in Oakdale as the fifth child of French immigrants. He raised pigs in high school as part of the Future Farmers of America program, and by the time he went off to college, he could pay for his tuition by selling his sows. For five years, he ran a one-person ag department in the Central Valley, then started at Tomales High School in the fall of 1990.
Many of his students were from farming and ranching families, but they had not yet adopted sustainable practices. He looks around West Marin today and sees several of his former students who were on the forefront of the organic movement.
“With teaching, you really don’t see a finished product at the end of the day, or the end of the year,” he said. “Hopefully, you do your job well, and they gain something from the experience. Then years later you might see them and where they are now, and you get some good feedback.”
Mr. Gregoris’s students hatched steelhead trout in the classroom. They raised animals and presented them at the fair and participated in creek habitat restorations. Ranchers and dairy farmers like Jolynn McClelland, Jarrid Bordessa and Julie Rossotti were in his class and are now putting the skills he taught to work.
Loren Poncia, the owner of Stemple Creek Ranch, remembers Mr. Gregoris as one of his favorite teachers. He said he was a great motivator who taught him the skills needed to be successful in agriculture. In the summer, Mr. Gregoris took groups to Fresno and San Luis Obispo for statewide meets, and his coaching helped them win gold medals and blue ribbons.
“His whole mission was to help us succeed if we wanted to,” Mr. Poncia said.
The ag program was demanding, so Mr. Gregoris switched to teaching science after eight years to take summers off. His walls are adorned with postcards from his travels, next to his science posters and props.
Mr. Gregoris also maintains a wall of pictures given to him by around 100 former students; sometimes they’ll return to campus and try to find their place on the wall. He keeps old thank-you notes in his desk that students have written him, and he reads them at the beginning and end of each year to remind him why he is there. The notes are one-of-a-kind, and they reinforce the idea that each student who walks in is unique and will learn in a different way. When he teaches, he said he tries to understand who each student is and how they learn best.
“Let your guard down a little bit, and they’ll let their guard down. Then they can learn better, and have fun,” he said.
The freshman students are quiet when they first arrive, but after about a month he can cultivate a back-and-forth during class. He said his experience as the child of immigrants and a first-generation college student helps him connect with Tomales High’s Latino population.
Mr. Gregoris kept up with the technology, from the days of floppy disks until now. But during the pandemic, the changes went into hyperdrive, and he felt like he was teaching for the first time again. He relied on his students to teach him how to use new programs. After a year, he said he still doesn’t know the freshman; with the juniors and seniors he felt some of their personalities come through over Zoom because he had met them last year.
Mr. Gregoris, 60, always knew he was going to retire this year. His age and experience made it the right time to take his pension, and he wanted to avoid ever dreading the job or doing it just for the paycheck. He plans to work as a substitute and catch up on some deferred maintenance on his home in Petaluma.
A community fixture
When Fred Gilardi met his first- and second-grade teachers at Inverness School, he already knew what he wanted to do for a career. He started out in 1975 as the drivers’ ed teacher at Tomales, cruising around the country roads with students before venturing onto Highway 101. Then he taught at Saint Vincent de Paul Elementary School in Petaluma before returning to Shoreline at West Marin School, where he spent the next 23 years teaching third, fourth and fifth grade.
Mr. Gilardi—known better as Mr. G—made learning fun. He passed out gummy worms at the end of each day such that a line of students always formed outside his door. He gave his students a box full of stamps and a book to glue them in, so they would walk away from his class with a vintage collection. He awarded students “bonus bucks” for going above and beyond, and at the end of the year. He was obsessed with Roald Dahl, and students knew when they entered his class that they would learn about the author. When Mr. Dahl died, the class wrote letters to his widow, and some of those letters are now held in the Roald Dahl Museum. He wrote poems about students who received awards and would read them aloud at banquets. He was a good sport at talent shows, most recently performing Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
“He was just such a team player. If it was going to make the kids smile, he would do it,” his daughter Gina Cheda said.
A couple years ago, Ms. Cheda ran into someone who recognized her maiden name. The former student lived in Arizona, but she still remembered “Mr. G.” years later. She said the class called him Superman because he was so tall, and they bought him a Superman shirt at the end of the year.
Nine years ago, Mr. Gilardi transferred back to Tomales to teach civics, economics and United States history. He had some of his former students a second time, and it inspired him to focus on specific subjects and exercise his passion for history. His classroom was museum-like, with framed historic newspapers, a map of the world, the United States’ founding documents and old ammunition from Gettysburg.
His ability to connect with the younger students translated well to the high school. Students ate lunch in his classroom and went to him for advice.
“It really wasn’t any different,” he said. “You’ve got the same kinds of problems, but the bodies are bigger.”
Mr. Gilardi reinvigorated the drama club and put on several plays. In civics, his students broke into political parties and made posters with their campaign promises, then they presented the ideas and conducted a mock election. In economics, they invented a candy or built a toy, then explained how the product is made and marketed. A lot of his ideas for activities came from his time as a student.
Mr. Gilardi, 68, was going to work one more year, but he said he was defeated by Zoom. He has no big plans for retirement and will return as a substitute teacher. His daughter said he will likely spend his time refinishing furniture and fixing clocks.
