At the end of the 2023-24 school year, Sheckler Elementary School said goodbye to two instructional aides who are ready to enjoy their retirement.

Lisa Meckes, noncertified instructional aide, graduated from Whitehall High School and Lehigh Carbon Community College with an associate degree.

She worked as an instructional aide in first grade, kindergarten, learning support and life skills classrooms for 12 years before serving as an elementary school secretary for 11 years. After working at Sheckler Elementary for 23 years, it will be hard to leave, she said.

“Retiring from Sheckler feels like I am saying goodbye to a second family,” Meckes said. “I’ll miss the camaraderie and support that made every day special. I am truly grateful and blessed for the memories we’ve shared and the lifelong friendships made, and I’ll carry them with me into this new chapter of my life.”

She said she is proud of her family, including her husband, Cliff, and their children and grandchildren. She noted both of her children attended Catasauqua Area School District.

“My daughter Nicole, who lives in Pittsburgh, completed her OB/GYN residency and is currently a fellow physician in urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery. She is engaged to Kyle Semroc,” Meckes proudly reported. “My son, Tyler, is a growth strategist living in West Chester with his wife, Dana, and their two children, Grayson and Lacey.”

Colleen Whitsett, certified instructional aide, is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. She moved to the Lehigh Valley in 1969 and attended Whitehall High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Penn State University.

For about two years, she taught health and physical education courses at the Penn State Allentown campus. She also coached the tennis team.

Whitsett then worked full time as the women’s health and physical education director at the Allentown YMCA/YWCA. She spent about five years developing and implementing community fitness classes, giving public talks on health and fitness and working with drug rehabilitation facilities to provide fitness to their clients.

While at the YWCA, Whitsett also worked per diem for Lehigh Valley Hospital’s wellness program teaching various fitness classes and developing a prenatal and postpartum fitness program.

She met her husband, Ed, in 1982, and had her first daughter in 1984. Starting a family prompted her to stop working full time to raise her four children. Whitsett continued working per diem for the hospital wellness program. She also worked at health fairs and gave lectures during hospital programs.

She then started working as a substitute teacher, mostly in the Catasauqua Area, Whitehall-Coplay and Allentown school districts.

Around 2004-05, Whitsett was offered a job as a certified teacher aide at Sheckler Elementary. She said she enjoyed working with wonderful teachers, such as Debbie Blake, Shannon Wanko, Tina Snyder and Sue Conner. She also worked in kindergarten for a few years, worked one on one with a student and spent about 10 years working Title I with Jen Theirer.

“Sheckler was always my favorite school to work in,” Whitsett said. “Everyone is so friendly and helpful, and it just has a different feel than all the other schools I was at. It has been a blessing and a joy to be part of the Sheckler family all these years.”

She said she will miss the daily interactions with the students and her co-workers.

“I don’t believe there has been a day that has gone by that someone didn’t make me smile or just laugh out loud,” Whitsett recalled.

In retirement, she said she will get back into bicycling along the trails, gardening and doing work around the house. She is also hoping to spend time watching her granddaughter during the week once her daughter moves back to the Lehigh Valley.

She also plans to spend time with her husband at the beach and enjoy slowing down to enjoy life.

“I’m not quite certain what retirement brings,” Whitsett said. “It’s a whole different chapter in my life.”

She said “it has been a true honor and privilege” working at Sheckler Elementary and becoming part of the school family.

“The path that I thought I would be on turned out to be something different and was a wonderful surprise,” Whitsett said. “God works that way and sent me in a different direction. I wouldn’t change a thing about it!”