by Nate Gotlieb
Contributing Writer
Patty Flahave was scheduled to interview for a teaching job in Green River, Wyoming, early in her career when she got a call from the superintendent of her hometown school district.
The superintendent asked Flahave to come in for an interview, after conversing with her dad at the town post office. Flahave went in at 1 p.m. on a Saturday and got a job offer, which she accepted.
The decision led to a nearly 40-year teaching career in central Minnesota, which will culminate in the next couple of weeks. Flahave spent 29 years teaching first grade at Zimmerman Elementary School and 31 years overall in the Elk River Area School District.
“I’m just so lucky and I’m honored to have met and worked with so many wonderful little students and their families,” she said. “That’ll be something I’ll remember forever.”
Flahave was the youngest of eight kids growing up in Royalton, Minnesota. Her father was the town’s mayor and barber while her mother was an elementary teacher in a one-room school house.
“I always called her a pioneer in education,” Flahave said, noting that her mother never took any time off. She said her mother helped instill that passion for education in her, adding that working with kids was something she always wanted to do.
Flahave taught summer school in Little Falls after graduating from St. Cloud State in 1978 and accepted the job in Royalton that August. She taught there for two years and for two years in the St. Michael-Albertville district before coming to the Elk River district. She began teaching first grade at Zimmerman in 1986.
Zimmerman kindergarten teacher Cindy Eversman has worked with Flahave for 25 years. She said the kids love Flahave, noting her love for the school and her belief that every child is capable of learning.
“She’s got such positive energy, and that extends through the way she teaches and the way she communicates with everyone in the building,” said Kris Bonasera, a special-education teacher who has worked with Flahave for 11 years.
“She just has this special nature about her where she knows what kids need.”
First-grade teacher Amanda Aubart has worked with Flahave for 10 years and also went to school with her kids. She said Flahave is “very much student centered” and puts the students above everybody else.
“She always has this glow about her,” Aubart said. “When you see her, you just think, ‘Yep, everything’s going to be great.’”
Aubart said Flahave is in charge of the school’s “sunshine” committee, which takes care of staff members through good times and bad. She has also mentored many teachers in the building, Bonasera said, without an aura of pride or ego.
“There’s no sense of competition,” Bonasera said. “She wants everybody to be great.”
Flahave said there isn’t another school where she’d rather have spent her career. Her husband is retiring in July after 38 years with Great River Energy, and she said they are planning to enjoy the summer and take short, little trips.
Bonasera said she will miss Flahave’s positive attitude and passion for the teaching profession. She added that Flahave is retiring “at the top of her game” and noted how much Flahave has contributed to Zimmerman’s culture.
“This building exudes a lot of warmth because of Patty,” Bonasera said. “She loves these kids, she loves this building and she loves this community.”