Principal retiring after 27 years
at Kent Middle School
By Joe Wolfcale
Monday, May 23, 2005 - Storek will be missed by Kent students, teachers
The tattered newspaper clippings, photographs and other mementos of 27 years of service are coming down in the office of Kent Middle School principal Lynda Storek.
Piece by piece, Storek is collecting them from a cork board on the wall and organizing them in a special place, a sturdy manila file folder, stretched out on the white couch in her office.
On another wall is a picture of her as a young teacher, instructing students on a project. Underneath it is a picture of Storek's 1942 first-grade class at Chabot School in Oakland. She pointed to herself, sitting in the middle of the first row.
After nearly 30 years as an educator and administrator in the Kentfield School District, Storek is retiring at the end of June.
"It's going to be really, really hard," said Storek, 62. "I really do love my job. The people I work with, the students and the supportive families that we have here. I'm really lucky to have had a job that I love."
Storek has been principal at Kent Middle School for 10 years. She started her career as a substitute in the Oakland Unified School District, worked for five years in Orinda and started in Marin County as a classroom aide.
She taught mathematics, science and art at the elementary school level and became principal at Kent Middle School in 1995.
Assistant Principal Skip Kniesche is the person named to succeed Storek.
"She leaves huge shoes to fill," Kniesche said. "She's impacted a lot of lives. She's been a great mentor to me personally."
Kniesche will assume the principal's office this September when nearly 500 fifth- through eighth-graders return for classes. Storek will stay on part time, working on school curriculum for the school district.
Storek and her architect husband Glenn live in Belvedere and have been married 40 years. The couple has three adult daughters.
Earlier last week, Storek attended to one of her projects, the school's ambassador program, in which students from all class levels are trained in conflict resolution and try to intervene before problems arise on campus.
At the top of last week's agenda was what the group wanted for its last lunch together with Storek. Pizza lost to the In-N-Out hamburger joint.
One ambassador is seventh-grader Natalie Whalen. She's going to miss Storek.
"She's always thinking of us," Natalie said. "It's really fun to be around her. She's always there for us. Whenever you think about Kent, you think about Mrs. Storek."
One of projects she is proudest of as an educator was the work her Kent Middle School students did in 1991, researching the life of California Civil War figure Samuel Corbett.
Storek's class collaborated on the project with a school in Madera, resulting in a published work, "The Civil War Diaries of James Corbett."
Throughout her career, colleagues said, she has been devoted to the students, the parents who support the school and the staff who make her day enjoyable.
"She was so much more than a teacher," 30-year artist friend Ann Turner said. "I hope more teachers like her are coming into the world, but I don't think so. She's one of the greatest women I know."
As a tribute to Storek, school officials have established a college scholarship in her name. It will be managed by the Marin Education Fund.
"I can't believe that I have students who are 50 years old," Storek said. "I really don't know what I'm going to do without the kids."
Lynda Storek's retirement party is 7:30 p.m. June 3 at Unity Center, 600 Palm Drive, Hamilton Field. It costs $30. For more information: Call 458-5974 or download our online invitation.