Tupelo High School’s very own Joan Peart-Kelsie is retiring. Mrs. Peart Kelsie has been a help desk technician at Tupelo High School for seven years. She is orginally from the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, but this October marks her 22nd anniversary of living in the United States. Before arriving in the States Kelsie was a teacher in Jamacia. Upon moving to Delaware, she wanted to begin teaching again.
“I’m a trained teacher, I taught for years in Jamaica so when I came here my first instinct was to go back to teaching ”
Mrs. Peart-Kelsie was a substitute teacher for schools in both Delaware and Mississippi. In Tupelo, she started at the Tupelo Christian Preparatory School, but soon after began subbing for the Tupelo School District. Eventually, she was given a permanent sub position at the high school.
“I started subbing here and one day they offered me a permanent sub position so I subbed for four years”
During her time subbing, Peart-Kelsie would assist the help desk and eventually, when a vacancy opened up, she applied and has been there ever since. Mrs. Peart-Kelsie has enjoyed her time here in Tupelo due to the kind nature of the students and staff.
“This is the longest place I’ve lived since I’ve been in the United States so this is like home”
Working at the school has gifted Kelsie with many friendships among her coworkers. While she is looking forward to her new retirement status, she is sad about missing the interaction with her friends. She values her friendships and has tremendously enjoyed being a part of their team.
“It is a bittersweet moment since these have been my friends for so many years.”
Kelsie does anything she can to help a friend in need.
“We help one another, we look out for one another, we just show love and concern for one another”
Mrs. Peart-Kelsie’s fellow workers speak very highly of her.
“We work close to each other. She’s a really sweet person, she’s easy to talk to, she’s funny, so I think we just get along very well all of us work really close together so we really enjoy working with her” Co-worker, Megan Milner, Said.
One thing coming with retirement that Mrs. Peart-Kelsie is looking forward to is traveling again. She hasn’t returned to Jamaica since 2012 due to work and the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that she has the time and opportunity to travel more, Peart-Kelsie also has her eyes set on traveling to Abu Dhabi in the EAU. Many of her family members have visited there
Mrs. Peart-Kelsie’s final day is December 21st as she completes her final semester at Tupelo High School. We wish her all the best on her new journey.
