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J-M educator retires after 40-year career
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH JACKSON
Joe DiLoreto said he will miss the students who walk the hallways as he heads into retirement after a 40-year career in education.
DiLoreto, who has been the principal at Jackson-Milton Elementary School the past six years, showed off a book of suggestions of what to do in retirement from each of the students. Some of the suggestions were to catch up on sleep and swim more, among others.
“That one brought a tear to my eye,” DiLoreto said of the book. He also received a pillow from one of the classes with all of the students’ signatures on it.
He is retiring at the end of the month and is being replaced by Kim Fisk as principal of the elementary school.
He began his career at St. Joseph Elementary School in Austintown for five years where he taught third and fifth grades. He also said during his time at the now-closed St. Joseph’s he was a chairman for the school’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. “It was a grand time and a time to celebrate our country and not have to worry about terrorism,” he said. “It’s escalated and escalated over the years. We didn’t have those things that hung over us.”
He also recalled other tragedies that happened during his time in the field, such as the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
He was in the midst of a 28-year stint as a first- grade teacher at Jackson-Milton, where he began as a science teacher in 1979, and was watching the Challenger take off with his class when the shuttle exploded. “We tried to put it in terms that they would understand,” but they just thought it was an explosion, he said.
On Sept. 11, 2001, DiLoreto said, the students didn’t watch live, but recalled, “That was just a shock and through the TV and media, they learned about terrorism and tragedy.”
He shifted from being a first-grade teacher to principal in 2008. “As I got older, it was getting tiring to be with the little ones,” he said.
He said he has seen trends come and go in the educational field, such as “open learning,” which is the absence of walls and doors in the classroom. The impact of technology has been a big factor during his time in the field.
“We didn’t have calculators in the classroom when I started,” he said. The first time he saw a computer in the classroom was in the 1990s, and now the kindergarten class at Jackson-Milton uses iPads and digital clickers.
Superintendent Kirk Baker reflected on the retirement of his friend.
“Its always hard to replace experience. ... All of his decisions were based on what’s good for the kids,” Baker added.
DiLoreto said he is looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren and volunteer in retirement.