After over thirty years in the field, Cooperstown kindergarten teacher Rena Lull is retiring.

The front hall of the elementary school has a big, colorful display in her honor with suggestions from students about what she can do with her newfound free time. She can go camping at Beaver Valley, that is, if she wants to stay local, or she can take another suggestion to heart and head off to Las Vegas to become a showgirl. It's a whole new world out there.

She plans to devote more of herself to her family, now that she doesn't have to "think of school twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year." She has two nieces, one with wedding plans in the near future, a fraternal twin sister, and parents with whom she'd like to spend more time.

A note on the door of her classroom reads, in childish, just-learning-to-write scrawl, "I love you. You are the best teacher in the world."

Her room is filled with tiny chairs and tables, low to the ground, for the students just beginning their stint in the system.

"They come in in the fall and I get to see the growth for the year," Lull said. "I'll miss that the most."

What she won't miss are the ever-increasing state mandates that require meetings and changes, even at the kindergarten level, resulting in less control of the classroom, she said.

"I'd probably keep teaching if I could come in at eight and leave at three thirty," she said. "I'm getting tired of the state telling me what to do. It seems like it was a lot easier teaching years ago than it is now. There's much more of a demand on everyone."

Her career began in Otselic Valley, where she worked for five years while completing her graduate work. But, she said, she was looking for a bigger small town with more to offer and came to Cooperstown in 1974. She's been here ever since and has seen a number of improvements over the years. She said the district sets high standards for the students.

"There's a full time school psychologist now and an elementary guidance counselor. We offer free breakfast and play therapy for children from difficult backgrounds who really need it," she said. She has seen family structures change over the years and said that instances of single parents raising children, or grandparents raising children, have risen dramatically.

Lull said that having a full-time aide in her classroom for the first time this year was wonderful because so many silly and ridiculous things happen in the room that it was fun to have someone there to share it with.

For a year, Lull has been serving a term as president of the local chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an organization for women educators. She said it's one of the hardest non-paying jobs she's ever had. In addition to another year as president of the group, she plans to devote more time to the Methodist Church and do some volunteer work at Bassett Hospital and the Meadows.

"Rena has taught in the district for twenty seven years," said school superintendent Mary Jo McPhail, "in the early elementary grades, kindergarten, first and second. She is a committed educator who has loved her children and they've loved her. We're very appreciative for her dedication to the children of our community."