~by Joseph Beaudet, Scranton Journal intern
After 31 years of being a fun-loving teacher and coach in the same school district, Mark Sawhill is calling it quits.
The atmosphere helped keep Sawhill in the Jefferson-Scranton School District and later the Greene County School District. He felt the Jefferson area was a good community and provided good community support, something he thinks is essential for schools to succeed.
Sawhill has never been one for awards, or anything of the sort. Instead, he most enjoyed “watching kids succeed, getting better at something, and enjoying what they are doing.” To him, that was the greatest award he could receive.
Fun was the name of the game for Sawhill’s fifth grade math classes. He “did not want to have a boring classroom, that’s for sure.” On top of wanting to have fun, he emphasized to his students that making mistakes was okay. He says “that’s how you learn from things.”
The memories Sawhill will cherish most come in the people he’s worked with along the way. He’s seen plenty of staff members come and go in his 31 years, but he’s been able to build relationships with a large majority of them.
For many students, Sawhill wore more than one hat, serving as the head baseball and wrestling coach for 28 years and an assistant football coach for 23 years. Not only was he able to serve as a coach, but he was able to work with more kids throughout his career, something he thoroughly enjoyed.
In retirement, he plans to live spontaneously. Outside of working at Deal’s Orchard near Jefferson during the fall, he will just be hanging out and helping people out as they ask.
