Haitz to retire after 36 years as a local teacher

Longtime local educator, Greg Haitz, has announced his retirement after teaching for 36 years in Brown County.

In his many years as a teacher, Haitz has become a fixture at Southern Hills Career/Technical Center in Georgetown.

Since his start in the late 1980s, he has taught thousands of students. He has been a teacher in Brown County for 36 years.

“All at Southern Hills, and all basically in the same room,” Haitz said of his long teaching career at SHCTC, formerly known as Southern Hills Joint Vocational School. “We remodeled in 2007 and my room was made larger. When I started in 1987 we had chalk boards. Today, we have computers with a projector that puts information on a white board for that day’s lesson. I usually have over 130 students a year from all over Brown County, multiply that by 36 years and you get really close to 5,000 students. That’s a small city I always try to throw in a little humor into class, bad dad jokes. About four years ago I asked a student if I taught her dad. She said, ‘no, that’s my grandpa.’ I knew then it was time to go. Found out later he was her step-grandpa. I worked for seven different principals in my 36 years.”

Haitz has taught American Government, World History, US History, Regional History, World Geography, and driver’s education; and for six years he taught GED night school.

“My favorite class to teach is the Regional History class,” said Haitz. “Having students say, ‘I have been there many times’ is great.”

Haitz was also the mentor teacher at SHCTC for many years.

“I worked with the beginning teachers and gave them ideas and ways to improve their teaching,” said Haitz. “The last few teachers I worked with, I have been teaching longer than they had been alive. Those teachers have turned into great teachers, I hope I helped a little along their way.”

When asked what he will miss most about teaching, Haitz said his fellow teachers and his students are at the top of the list.

“I will miss my follow teachers, we had a lot of laughs in the teachers’ staff Room during lunch. I’ll miss the students, especially when you see the student get the lesson,” said Haitz. “I won’t miss the extra paper work that seems to grow every year.”

While Haitz is retiring from his long career at SHCTC, he will still be teaching freshmen at Maysville Community College and continue working as a freelance reporter for the local newspapers.

He also plans to spend some time relaxing with family.

“My wife, Lisa, and I have a boat and we will be going out on the river more. We will do some traveling, I plan to read more often, and just take it easy and watch the river go by,” said Haitz.

For Haitz, teaching has been a very rewarding career.

“I have won a few honors down through the years, but the best honor I received was at the college one night. An older woman walked up to me after the first night of class and said that I owed her $100,000. I said, ‘oh really.’ She said ‘yes,’ (and) that her son planned on being a doctor, but after taking my class he switched to History. Made my week.”