When Boothbay Region Elementary School held its end-of-the-school-year assembly June 19, Principal Mark Tess announced which staff and teachers were retiring. When Lucy-Ann Spaulding and Rita Arnold’s names were read, loud, mournful wails of “No!” filled the gymnasium from top to bottom. Arnold taught fifth and sixthgrade classes, and was beloved as a teacher. So was Spaulding. 

Spaulding worked at BRES for 25 years, teaching at multiple grade levels and eventually finding her way back to kindergarten. There, she ushered hundreds of nervous, shy little people into a new world with new rules and taught them gently how to live in that world. That takes someone special. 

“I have worked with worked with Lucy-Ann for 23 years,” Tess said. “She is kind and caring with all of her students.  I regularly see former students come back to visit with her because she has such a positive relationship with them.”

Spaulding, a Boothbay region native, graduated from Boothbay Region High School. She earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education with a concentration in language communications at the University of Southern Maine, and a master’s in science in elementary reading and math from Walden University, an accredited online college in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Before settling into her long career at BRES, she worked as a tutor for the USM Reading Academy. She coordinated a gifted and talented program and worked as a research assistant for gifted and talented children at USM. She taught in Waldoboro at Miller School for nine years and established a preschool in her home, the Ocean Point Children’s School for three years. BRES originally hired her as a first-grade teacher.

Her classroom, where the interview took place, exploded with color. Everything was hobbit-sized. A love seat with a sweet, cuddly teddy bear created a comfortable, comforting place.

Spaulding wanted her departure to be a quiet one, and she waited until the last school board meeting to have it announced. “I hemmed and hawed,” she admitted. But her husband, Larry, whom she said has retired twice, wants a chance to enjoy retirement together. “You have to take advantage of life while you have it,” Spaulding said. Larry owns a small teardrop camper and would like to haul it across the country to see all the national parks.  

But that won’t happen right off, Spaulding said. “We sold our house and we’re in the process of building a new one,” she said. This house, on land that has been in her family for generations, will be smaller than the last one. Spaulding’s daughters, Whitney and Brooke, are grown and Spaulding said they don’t need the extra room. She said she also won’t mind staying around because she’ll be able to spend time with her two young grandchildren, Marlowe and Cooper.

She’ll have no trouble keeping busy. She is an experienced skier and worked as a ski coach for the American Ski Company in Sugarloaf. She’s writing a couple of children’s books and she’s taught piano to BRES students. She also loves to sail, swim, travel, read, sew and draw. “I am unable to sit still.”

Her seamstress skills are well-known and her annual Peter Cottontail extravaganza has earned her celebrity status in certain circles. “She’s especially gifted in making clever crafts,” Tess said. “If you’ve ever seen her kids perform their Peter Cottontail play, it’s priceless. She makes all the costumes.”

Spaulding became a teacher after trying a few paths of her own. When she was a child, her mother worked with Head Start students in the summer, and Spaulding played with the kids. In high school, she was a member of the Future Teachers of America club, which volunteered with the Head Start program. “I said, ‘well, I’d like to be a teacher, but I’d really like to go into fashion design.’ But back in those days, it was not practical and your parents highly discouraged you from getting into that and they said, ‘Go be a teacher’,” she said. 

She enrolled at USM for two years, and then decided to pursue her dream. She was accepted at a fashion design school in Texas, but decided not to go. She tended bar. took real estate courses, and took an interior design course at USM. Then, she said, “My father had always told us, ‘Finish what you started.’” She heeded his advice and finally earned her teaching degree. After teaching first grade at BRES, she taught kindergarten, grade three, a combination first and second grade, then back to kindergarten. “In that order,” she said.

Former BRES teacher Margo Wood was instrumental in helping her reach her goals. “This has been a wonderful school system,” Spaulding said. “They’ve encouraged me to take courses and go to conferences. We were also encouraged to implement new ideas.” Alternative Organizational Structure 98 Superintendent Eileen King has been supportive, as was former superintendent Mark Keegan, she said.   

As the interview drew to a close, her kindergarten students returned from BRES Field Day activities, several of them with painted faces. As she had her picture taken, they gathered in a tight circle around her, some of them looking fierce, some of them with smiles, all of them safe and sound for the moment in Mrs. Spaulding’s classroom.