After spending 30 years in the district – with one of those years on sabbatical, teaching in Nicaragua – Mrs. Boulay will be retiring at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
Mrs. Boulay got her start at Averill Park CSD as a substitute teacher while living in Nassau. She would later move to Columbia County, but liked the students at AP so much that she decided to commute 35-40 minutes to work instead of finding a school closer to home.
“I never wanted to work anywhere else,” she said. “I felt supported by the administration and by the community here. I have really enjoyed my job here. I have always had a lot of fun teaching biology.”
Among her favorite memories, Mrs. Boulay counts the time she was able to get bees into the classroom as a rare moment, saying, “We couldn’t believe we had a living hive of honeybees in the classroom!”
“I will miss interacting with the students the most,” she added. “I found it easy and fun to establish relationships with them and motivate them to do their best. That became obvious to me this year, creating relationships with the remote and virtual schedule was super challenging and frustrating.”
Mrs. Boulay doesn’t plan on slowing down much in retirement.
“I want to work in Hudson, which is close to where I live,” she said. “It’s an urban district, with lots of diversity. I would love to work in the schools, or for a non-profit.”
She currently works for a farmer, growing vegetables and selling them at the Hudson Farmers Market.
“I like the idea of investing in the community I live in,” she said. “I want to relax a bit. No more working weeknights and weekends!”
