Ark Valley News - Teacher ‘fell in love with Valley Center’

DJ Spaeth enjoyed teaching at Valley Center High School.

Teacher ‘fell in love with Valley Center’
By Matt Heilman
Last Updated: May 23, 2013

DJ Spaeth promised the district one year. She stayed for five.

Now, the English and history teacher is stepping away from a career she still sees as a passion rather than a job.

Spaeth, who worked in education for more than 40 years, said she had planned to retire from the Valley Center School district at the end of last year.

She came to Valley in 2008 on the final leg of her career that began in the early 1970s at a new school in the inner city of Chicago, where she taught first-generation immigrants.

"I figured, I started in a brand-new school, I'd go out in a brand-new school," she said. "But I was too attached to the kids."

So, she stayed one more year and is coming off what she says was one of the best semesters she's had as a teacher.

After about seven years in Chicago, Spaeth spent two years teaching students from small communities in western Kansas out of a co-op in Dodge City before finding her home in the Wichita area.

Spaeth spent 28 years teaching and coaching at Wichita North High School before her final stop in Valley Center.

At North, she served as the history department chair, and coached the scholars bowl team, the cheerleading squad and the boys' and girls' soccer teams.

Spaeth, whose birth name was Donna Jean, had her name shortened to "DJ" to disguise her sex on her resume and overcome gender discrimination when she applied to coach soccer at North. She began as an assistant in 1987 before taking the reins as head coach.

She led the North High boys' soccer team to four state tournaments, highlighted by a state championship in 1989. In an example of how her career has come full circle, she said the brother of current Abilene Elementary School Principal Mark Hoy was one of her star players.

Spaeth still coaches soccer at North and plans to guide the Redskins on the pitch for at least one more year.

At Valley Center, Spaeth taught freshman English and sophomore and junior history. She also took charge of the school's pep club called The Rally Crowd.

She hosted her 19th foreign exchange student this year and encourages her students to travel after they graduate to see the world outside what they've grown to know and find comfortable.

In a career that has notched her several teaching awards, Spaeth said she's not sure what her next move will be. She said she might teach cooking classes and could be available as a consultant to help districts working on new standards at the state level.

"There are just so many possibilities, I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "I've got the summer to figure it out."

Spaeth, who was encouraged to visit Valley Center by former VCHS assistant principal Brian Gregoire, said she was impressed with what she saw in the growing district.

After interviewing for a teaching job, she agreed to help the district for one year. In the spring of 2009, she decided she wasn't ready to leave. She stayed four more years and is ending with possibly her best year.

"I fell in love with Valley Center," she said.