After a combined 61 years in the district, Tracey Wichman and Darwin Rowton are bidding Park County School District 1 farewell. 

Rowton is off to find his next adventure after a total of 30 years in education, while Wichman is looking to enjoy life and time with family and friends, after a total of 35 years in the district. When the next school year rolls around she’ll be catching a concert in Boston as a way to mark the start of the school year. 

First day of school

Wichman first came to Powell in 1991 after briefly teaching a combined classroom in California. The Worland graduate came back to the basin and was hired on as a first grade teacher at Parkside Elementary School in a time when Powell was experiencing “kind of a boom.” Wichman was one of several new teachers hired and kindergarten classes were moved to the armory, she said.

“It was fun, because Powell is very much like Worland, so I knew kind of the community atmosphere,” Wichman said. “I had a lot of wonderful mentor teachers that helped me during that time.” 

Seven years after Wichman, Rowton, who ended his PCSD1 career at Parkside, came to the district as a seventh grade special education teacher at Powell Middle School. Ahead of that he worked for three years as a social studies and PE teacher in Wolf Point, Montana, and then as a para in Big Horn County School District 1.

Rowton was a special education teacher at Powell Middle for seven years before becoming the middle school counselor for eight years. He then became the district’s special ed case manager for seven years and was at Parkside for five years as the school’s social worker.

He’s glad the board and administration allows people to look at other options within the district, he said. 

“It's kind of funny that I have changed to four different positions here, because I've actually enjoyed all my positions,” Rowton said. “There's none of them that if I wouldn't have been allowed to leave, I would have been disappointed, because I was happy in all of those positions, but it was kind of just with each one, it was kind of like a new and different challenge.”

Making a mark 

Wichman taught first grade her entire time in Powell and moved to Southside Elementary School in 2000.

Wichman first decided to become a teacher because of the teachers she had growing up; she loved how they taught her, she said. 

“I just like first grade, they’re so enthusiastic, they’re wanting to learn,” Wichman said. “And as far as their reading and math skills, they grow so much in such a little bit of time that it is so fun to watch.”

Rowton has learned that working with students requires starting fresh each day, he said.

“I think the thing I’ve learned through the years is the fact that when you’re in education, when you’re working with students, first and foremost, every day has to be a new day,” Rowton said.

He also tries to stay upbeat with students, he said.

And when it comes to working with elementary students, which he had not done before coming to Parkside, it's about paying attention and listening to them.

“As long as you pay attention to them, as long as you are upbeat, and once again, start every day as a new day, they are so fun to work with, and so enjoyable and lively as long as you give them that chance,” he said.

Outside of their approaches to teaching, Wichman and Rowton have both made their marks in their respective schools. Wichman was once a student council adviser and helped students operate the school store, where they learned about money — she fondly remembers when school field trips were more frequent. 

One of her big highlights every year has been the grandparent’s day concert, she said. She remembers a time when she was younger than all the grandparents, then when she was the same age as the parents — now, she’s older than some of the grandparents. 

Rowton has also been around long enough to share in some nostalgia.

“No matter where I go in the state and sometimes out of state, I always bump into somebody who I've known, who was a student,” Rowton said, adding, “That's the thing that I just really enjoy about my years here, is being able to constantly reconnect with students who I've known from the past.”

Wichman has seen the implementation of professional learning communities in the district and taught through Covid. She has worked with a lot of great people and principals who have all been mentors, she said.

“For 27 years in the same place, you would think that there would be lots of things that you would be tired of or wouldn't like anymore, those types of things," she said. "But this district is such a great district that it's been just a great 27 years between the staff, the students, the parents, it's just a great place to work.”