Lemay Teacher Retires After 37-Year Career

Surrounded by fellow teachers and family, Ruth Singer said goodbye Wednesday to the students, teachers and parents of Lemay Street Elementary School, where she has taught for 27 years.

After a 37-year career teaching, Singer, 60, will retire Monday.

“She was my favorite teacher,” said parent Lisa Estrada, 33, who was in Singer’s first-grade class in 1972.

Estrada remembers her teacher as youthful and sporting a ponytail, sunglasses and a pencil above her ear. She also had a different surname--Mrs. Borkin.

Years later, Singer taught Estrada’s daughter, Josie, now 14.

“Now my kids love going to school, and I think she’s the reason why,” said Estrada, of Van Nuys.

Singer taught for seven years at West Athens Elementary School in Los Angeles starting in 1961. She took a couple of breaks from full-time teaching over the years to substitute teach and raise her daughter.

She started teaching at Lemay in 1972, coordinating an early literacy training program and teaching gifted students science through art. She also taught a night class in parent effectiveness at Reseda High School. And she taught Saturday classes earlier this decade at William Mulholland Middle School in Van Nuys.

“I’m looking forward to leisure time, but I’m going to stay in touch with education,” she said.

Singer said she hopes to continue teaching visual arts once a week to students and staff members at Lemay. Singer, who has mainly taught kindergarten and first grade, said she enjoys teaching art because it raises kids’ self-esteem.