Heber teacher gives her students a special sendoff
HEBER — Sylvia Espinoza wanted to make sure her sixth-graders stayed sharp over the summer as their final school day took place Friday.
The Heber School teacher made goodie bags for her 29 students. She handed out the bags in front of the school with a drive-thru distribution.
Espinoza, a teacher for 26 years, has never had to say goodbye to her students in such fashion, but it became necessary due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I still had so many tricks up my sleeve for the last few months of school, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Espinoza wrote in a good luck letter, which was included in each bag, to her students.
Those tricks will have to be unveiled to next year’s class. Espinoza said she’s “not close to retiring at all.” She was HESD’s 2018-19 co-Teacher of the Year.
He husband, Sergio, is retiring, however.
Sergio Espinoza is the district’s special projects director and has worked many years at HESD in various roles, including teacher and assistant principal.
In 2019, he won Association of California School Administrator’s Administrator of the Year award for his leadership in student services.
Sergio and Sylvia’s 24-year-old son, Sergio Espinoza Jr., is also an HESD employee. He runs the school’s ASES afterschool guitar program.
Sergio Jr. was on site during Friday’s distribution.
While he was in high school, Sergio Jr. would always be around to help his mother during her class events. He didn’t have to travel far to do so, as he was born and raised in Heber.
Now, as an adult with responsibilities of his own, he doesn’t have as much free time available. He’s currently attending night school to become a teacher.
However, Sergio did join his mother Friday in a different way, as he manned a table of his own just a few feet away to give goodie bags to his graduating guitar students.
“I did help her set up, and when people got here,” he said.
Some students on Friday received two bags, as they had both Espinozas’ classes.
As for Sylvia Espinoza, she was sure to give all her students the best sendoff possible, just in case some switch schools and she doesn’t see them around campus again. Heber School is fourth through eighth grade.
Each one of her bags contained materials to write letters — stamps to send postcards and stationery. Mrs. Espinoza fundraised for these supplies through the website Donors-Choose. She said did so as she believes that writing letters — to classmates, family members or herself — will help her students’ spirits during the pandemic.
She also included snacks, a coloring book, coloring pencils and a brand new Xacto pencil sharpener.
Espinoza said she made it a point to include a sharpener, as one wasn’t readily available in her house when she was a child.
“My dad used a knife instead,” she said. “That’s what we had growing up.”