Sharon Kinnan To Retire After 44 Years Of Teaching Third Grade

A longtime Neligh-Oakdale elementary teacher will retire at the end of the year, having completed her 44th year of not only teaching, but teaching only third grade at Neligh-Oakdale.

The Neligh-Oakdale Board of Education accepted her resignation during Monday's meeting. Superintendent Scott Gregory said Kinnan has had a model career and called it a privilege having her in the school system. 

Kinnan graduated from Great Bend High School in Great Bend, Kansas, in 1971, and went to college for one year at Barton County Community College before transferring to Wayne State College. She later earned her master's degree from Doane College. She began teaching at Neligh-Oakdale in the fall of 1975.

Kinnan spent her first 20 years teaching at the Oakdale building before moving to West Ward for 11 years. She's taught the last 13 years at East Ward. 

"My favorite part of teaching is the interaction I have with students and their families," Kinnan told the Antelope County News last year. "It is so much fun to look around our community and see many successful adults that I have had a tiny piece in educating.  It is so rewarding to see a child grow and develop in the year that they spend with me."

She and her husband, Gene, live in Oakdale and have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandsons. Both Gene and Sharon are very active in the Oakdale Cemetery Association and spend many hours updating and working at the cemetery.  They also are involved with the Lois Johnson Memorial Library and in their church.