When I think of Mary Flynn I am reminded of the words of Michael Corelone in the movie The Godfather III. “Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in.”
When Mary retired from her job working in special education at Buckeye Valley School she thought it would be a great idea to come back to her alma mater, Our Lady of Peace, to work as a classroom aide. Fairly low stress job. She could walk to work. And so, I gladly hired her to be an aide in grades 4 & 5.
As fate would have it, I had hired a new fourth grade teacher that year but by early October she was gone. It’s hard to hire teachers these days, especially during the school year. Mary and Stephanie McNally took over for the class until Liz Martin found a home here. Mary went back to her aide position.
During that school year, she and I talked about Our Lady of Peace becoming a Jon Peterson provider. For those not fully enmeshed in educational jargon, we had been using a third-party company exclusively for our students with special needs, and funds from the Jon Peterson state program paid for them. I was interested in doing that in-house. Mary was agreeable to working with me and we went through the arduous process of applying.
Last school year was our first year of being a provider. It was a trial balloon year for us, and Mary led the program as we made plans to expand for the current school year. By Christmas of 2024 we had hired a full-time intervention specialist for the 2025-2026 school year and had secured funds from the Teresa Gelonese Foundation to establish a permanent room for helping students with learning disabilities. Mary was happy to turn the reins over to the new guy so that she could go back to being an aide.
By summer, the man we had hired left us high and dry to pursue other work. We were able to hire another to take his place. We dedicated the St. Joseph of Cupertino Room for Educational Excellence in the fall and were ready to rock and roll.
Intervention Specialist number 2 left us within a month. We had the room. We had the staff. We had the students. But we didn’t have a licensed intervention specialist. “Mary?” we said. Mary said yes once again.
Mary is retiring this year. Again. We are blessed that we are fully staffed for next school year as our needs increase. We have a thriving SPICE Program to help us pay for extras for the program. None of this would be possible without Mary Flynn.
As I mentioned, Mary is an alumna of Our Lady of Peace. Her daughters are graduates as well. Her husband Tom is an usher at the church. Mary is a lector. They are deeply involved in the parish. And Mary has given her heart and soul to our school for three post-retirement years.
When one wonders about how a school not only functions but thrives, you need only to look at the dedicated people who work there. Our Lady of Peace is successful because of our faculty and staff. Although Mary has only been with us as an employee for a short time, she has said “yes” to every opportunity to make Our Lady of Peace a better place for our students. Like all the faculty and staff, she is a daily, visible symbol of Christ to our children.
As we get better at discovering how students learn, and what impediments they face in learning successfully, an intervention center is becoming more and more vital to a school that hopes to build His Kingdom for all students whose parents desire a Catholic education, regardless of ability. As we approach another eighth-grade graduation, we can proudly say that at Our Lady of Peace we are changing lives. We are bringing in five-year-old children with a world of things to learn and we are graduating thirteen- and fourteen-year-old young men and women more than ready for high school and beyond.
Mary Flynn is such a graduate. She has given her life to helping children. We were blessed to have her with us, not only to work with our students but to build a solid program that will enhance what we do for years to come.
God Bless her in her re-retirement. Unfortunately for Mary, we know where to find her if we need her again!
Jim Silcott