MARYSVILLE — Jim Pankiewicz has spent 34 of his 36 years as an educator teaching at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, so it’s no wonder that, to his students, to their parents, and to the surrounding business community, he’s simply known as “Mr. P,” because with three and a half decades there, the M-PHS marketing teacher and DECA advisor has practically become an institution.
In contrast to the large and colorful words of thanks and farewell that students have written on his whiteboard, declaring him the “BEST TEACHER EVER!” in capital letters, Pankiewicz himself was soft-spoken and understated, as he discussed his impending retirement from education.
“I want to emphasize that I still love what I do here,” Pankiewicz said. “I’m still having a great time. I’d just like to do something different, while I’m still mentally alert and physically healthy enough to enjoy it. I want to write in the mornings, and take time out to fish. I’d like a different schedule for my days.”
That being said, Pankiewicz laughed that he would go “stir-crazy” without something to do every day, so he’s putting his 38 years of experience as a part-time real estate agent to work.
“I’ve been in real estate even longer than I’ve been teaching, so it won’t be a difficult transition to go into it full-time now,” Pankiewicz said. “It will be difficult to leave this school.”
Pankiewicz recalled starting his teaching career at the age of 22, after a slight course correction.
“I went to school to become a CPA,” Pankiewicz said. “I changed my major in my sophomore year of college. It might sound trite, but I believed I could make a difference.”
Pankiewicz has enjoyed guiding his students into adulthood, and he expressed confidence that they would continue to realize their potential.
“I’ll miss seeing these kids grow in skills and confidence,” Pankiewicz said. “I’ll miss the dynamics of the classroom, the push and pull, the cajoling. I’ve learned that there’s always hope. I see how resilient these kids are, and how they overcome adversity, and I know that the future will be okay, and that these kids will turn out just fine.”
When Pankiewicz started teaching at M-PHS, the entire student body could fit into an auditorium with an 800-person capacity. In the three and a half decades that he’s been teaching, he’s seen how students’ interactions with each other, and with the world as a whole, have been changed by personal computers in the 1980s, by the Internet in the 1990s, and by cellular phones in this decade.
“I leave M-PHS with a deep, profound and enduring sense of gratitude,” Pankiewicz said. “I want to thank my students, my peers, the parents and the business community for the heartfelt support they’ve shown me.”
Pankiewicz’s retirement party will take place at the Viking Hall in Silvana, June 13 at 2 p.m. Attendees are requested to RSVP by sending e-mails to julbahner@hotmail.com.
