Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Teacher Retiring After 32 Years : Graduation: After watching her class move on today, she says she will be ready to see ‘what else is out there.’

Carolyn Brenneman will watch the last of her 30 children graduate from Pinetree Community School today.

It’s her last class. Brenneman is retiring from the Sulphur Springs Union School District after 34 1/2 years of teaching, 32 of them here.

She has been an active, nomadic presence in the district, working at all seven schools and seven grade levels. She has served repeatedly on advisory committees that guide curriculum decisions and trained other educators with new programs and teaching techniques.

That desire for new experiences has prompted her to retire at 55, the minimum age allowed by the district.

“It’s been a wild, wacky 32 years and I never got into a rut,” said Brenneman. “I just figured it’s time to see what else is out there.”

Most of her work as a teacher has been as a reading specialist.

“When a kid goes from ‘I don’t know how to read’ to ‘I got it’ and the light bulb goes on is the most exciting thing,” Brenneman said Wednesday, relaxing in the Pinetree staff room to avoid sweltering temperatures outside.

She has just finished opening cards and presents from her students, a group she affectionately describes as “rambunctious” and with “more energy than they know what to do with.”

Her original students are about 40 years old now. She taught kindergarten and first grade at a private school for 2 1/2 years before county education officials assigned her to the Sulphur Springs district in rural Canyon Country.

When Brenneman arrived for her first morning of teaching in the district, she was approached by a 10-year-old girl on horseback who asked where to tie the mount while she attended class.

“That should’ve given me a clue,” Brenneman said. “I got out here, and it was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was totally rustic.”