She’s lovin’ it: Canfield teacher to exit classroom, enter McDonald’s

By kristine gill

kgill@vindy.com

canfield

Debbie Haverstock sees golden arches in her future.

“I’m going to follow some dreams,” said the Youngstown native and math teacher at Canfield Village Middle School.

Among them, becoming a pharmacy technician, spending time with her grandson and working at McDonald’s.

“I went to school in the 1960s, and my dad wouldn’t let me work,” she said. “School was my job. I always thought working at McDonald’s would be fun.”

Haverstock, 59, will have time to do just that once she retires in June after 36 years teaching math to middle schoolers.

“She’s been here a long time,” said seventh-grader Joey Ferraro.

Haverstock told her students about her retirement Wednesday.

“They were ready to party” Thursday, she said.

Though premature in this case, Haverstock loves to celebrate every occasion.

Her husband, a retired English teacher from Boardman schools, sends flowers to her classroom on her birthday each year and she even tells students her age.

“We celebrate on my birthday, and I tell them they are to behave and have their homework done,” she said.

On the first day of school each year, she stands in front of the school as the buses arrive blaring Reveille on her trumpet. On the last day she plays taps as the final bus pulls away.

“I try to incorporate music,” she said. “I’m as crazy as seventh graders are.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com