David Aly plans to enjoy retirement

David Aly (at left) takes an end of school year photo with Amber King (EWMS principal) and  Darin Farris (EHS principal).

     
After 34 years of teaching and counseling, some of those spent at Salem, but most at East Washington, David Aly decided the end of the 2021-22 school year was a good time to retire.
Aly said there were a couple of things that just fell into place that led him to know this was the right time.
The first of those was selling his house in Old Palmyra.
“That really opened the door and allowed me to retire whenever I got ready,” he said. “Once I did that, I felt like it was a good time to get out.”
Aly started out as an ag teacher at Salem for 10 years and then took the same position at Eastern.
He taught ag for two years, but once he arrived at EHS he said he started working on getting his counseling license.
“I loved that decision,” Aly said. “I loved being a counselor. That’s my favorite job of all the jobs I’ve had.”
“I loved being an ag teacher, too,” Aly said. “Teaching and counseling, your interaction with the kids are just so different. As a teacher, you see the kids every day."
“I enjoyed the counseling, because it put you in a position to help students who were in a crisis. That is the main reason I made the change. Another thing I enjoyed about counseling is that it was something different every day. One day it may be crisis, one day it may be testing and one day it may be both of those at the same time. There is a lot of variety!”
That likely won’t be an issue for someone with so many interests, but he did admit that as the 2022-23 school year gets started, he is going to feel a little like a duck out of water.
“When the school year ended in May and I walked out and turned my keys in, that day felt really weird, because for 24 years I’ve had keys to Eastern,” he said.
“The other day that felt weird was that first day of school. After doing that for 34 years and then all of a sudden you’re not, that’s definitely going to feel different.”

Read Aly's entire story in The Salem Leader, on newstands now!

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