by Jim Boyle
Editor
Erin Talley had thoughts of being a veterinarian in middle school, but her family knew better.
She comes from three generations of the educators, starting with her grandmother, Clara Fisher Rybak, who was born in 1901 and became a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920s.
The Otsego woman, 59, is retiring from the Elk River Area School District this month, having served as a teacher, Otsego Elementary School principal, a curriculum specialist and the district’s director of teaching and learning.
Talley is not necessarily done as an educator, but she is changing her scenery. She knew she made the right choice to be an educator early on in her career when her grandmother and mother said they knew she would end up in education.
“I must have had some character traits they saw when I was younger,” Talley said. “I had that teacher gene of being compassionate but able to set high standards and push people to achieve them.”
The daughter of a Marine Corps veteran moved around some growing up, and sometimes when her father was serving certain Marine Corps assignments, she stayed back with her grandmother, who had a long career as teacher and was eventually named a principal of a New Prague grade school. At her retirement, she was called back to be the principal of the St. Wenceslaus Grade School for an additional year. The priest wanted to draw upon her practical and academic ability, said Elaine Rybak Barber, Talley’s aunt who has made a long career as an educator herself.
“Erin (Talley) was certainly influenced by this time that she lived with her grandmother,” Barber said. “I’m sure she heard many stories of how important Clara (Fisher Rybak) was to so many people in the area.”
Thoughts of being a veterinarian as a kid
Talley once told a teacher of her dreams of working with animals while staying after school to do a science project at an international school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Oh, honey, women are not vets,” she was told. “You should probably think of something else.”
The 1970s direction was enough reframe her thinking. Once her father retired from the Marines, she and her brother landed in New Prague, where her mother, Carol Scott, was raised. She and her brother went on to graduate from New Prague High School.
Talley studied teaching first at the University of Minnesota and got her first job working as a teacher of emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students in the ninth through 12th grades. From there, she went to a private school to teach seventh and eighth grade social studies and English. And from there, she landed in the Elk River Area School District where she has remained for 26 years.
“Education has changed so much,” she said. “There’s so many options open to everybody. That’s pretty cool.”
Grandmother’s friend led her to teaching
Clara Fischer Rybak was a pioneer in her day. Very few women balanced a career and raised a family.
She started teaching in 1920 after graduating from Jordan High School. She had also no intentions of going into education, but a friend of hers who was going to take a test to see about receiving a teaching certificate asked her to tag along.
Her friend did not pass the tests, but she passed with high marks. Several school boards came calling afterward, and she took a job with Helena, which was 5 miles from her home.
After many years of teaching she became a principal at a New Prague grade school and helped build another on the edge of town.
Talley and Rybak Barber say Clara Fisher Rybak was a strict teacher and demanding.
“You walked a little straighter when you saw her in the hall,” Talley said. “And if you sassed with her, she’d grab your ear, twist it and haul you down into her office and set you straight.”
There was a firmness and at the same time a softness. Talley remembers seeing her grandmother run clothes and shoes to people’s homes under the radar to make sure they were ready for school the next day.
She never had students classified as English Language Learners or English as a Second Language, but she had immigrants and once had a class where not a single student spoke English. She would not tolerate complaints of having to work with students of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
“‘You teach every child that comes into your room, regardless of who they are’ was her belief,” Talley said. “She was a very strong woman.”
Career highlight
Talley says her career highlight came as the principal of Otsego Elementary School, when the state of Minnesota was after the school for not reaching its Adequate Yearly Progress marks on state tests.
It was a frustrating time, as the school had better scores than many other schools in the state but were not under same microscope, Talley said.
It was a rather punitive process, but one that when all was said and done was helpful, she said.
“Our teachers were so invested in the success of that school,” Talley said. “That place will always be near and dear to my heart.”
New scenery
Talley is following her husband, who retired to Florida earlier this month.
“I love my job, but I love my husband more,” she said with a laugh.
Retirement will allow Talley more time with her husband, time to crafts like making greeting cards or working with fiber. She also still has a love for animals, which has resulted in having lots of pets and a beloved horse.
But Talley admits after a few months of “slowing down,” she will likely find a way to plug into a Floridian school system.
“It would almost seem unethical to sit there and do nothing,” Talley said.
Her grandmother worked until she was in her 70s, and her aunt Elaine Rybak Barber continues to substitute teach on a long-term basis at Benilde St. Margaret even though she’s now in her 80s.
Talley’s District 728 career had four stops
Talley’s first job in District 728 was at Rogers Elementary School when Ron Burland was principal at Rogers Elementary.
She was interviewed by now retired administrators Donna Williams and Dawn Moyer,
She became a sixth-grade teacher at Rogers Elementary. From there, she became a curriculum specialist.
“I loved that big picture of Early Childhood through 12th grade,” Talley said.
From there, she got her administration license and taught classes at St. Mary’s for curriculum and for leadership before heading to Otsego Elementary School to be the principal for seven years.
She came back to the District Office three years ago to serve as the director of teaching and learning. She was hired primarily to help with the teacher and principal evaluation system being required by the state.
She was hired by Assistant Superintendent Jana Hennen-Burr, who inherited her twice when she came to Rogers Elementary School and the District 728 Offices and she hired her twice (Otsego principal and teacher and learning director),
“Erin works tirelessly on behalf of students regardless of which position she has held,” Hennen-Burr said, noting she is able to implement change incrementally so it can be done well and in a right manner.
“Each position has been very different but all is interconnected,” Talley said.
The hardest part in education for teachers today, Talley says, is keeping up with changing technology
“I can remember when we got one phone for four of us to share so we didn’t have to go to the office – that was a big deal,” Talley said. “To go from that … to the new teachers now have to be so versed in technology.
“We had one computer we shared. Now we have a one-to-one initiative to get a computer in the hands of every student.”
Talley’s grandmother had died before she became a principal, but she still felt her influence and often.
“She would have said don’t worry about the test scores so much, and don’t worry about the labels on the kids,” Talley said of her grandmother. “Teach every kid.”
She would have liked the direction of staff development, too, which is looking at personalizing learning – call it differentiated professional development, meeting them where they are at.
“There are lots of exciting things going on,” Talley said.
Something will no doubt catch this educator’s interest in Florida. It’s in her genes, after all.