Livin’ good

Dick and Cathie Livengood started teaching for Huntley Community School District 158 in 2005, beginning their fourteenth year of classes this autumn. It’s an impressive feat made more impressive considering they’ve been retired the entire time.

The Sun City couple serves as substitute teachers, and with the district’s close proximity to their home, they find it easy to teach classes they love.

Cathie was a business education teacher at Parkway West High School in St. Louis for three decades, teaching computing, accounting and other subjects. Dick worked in manufacturing and management.

“When I was a teacher…I always said I’d never be a [substitute],” Cathie said. In St. Louis, she said, substitute teachers were rarely treated with respect by the students. So when she moved to Huntley, sprucing up the new house and preparing for her son’s wedding, the idea of becoming a substitute was the last thing on her mind.

However, she soon changed her mind. “I missed the classroom. I really missed being with the kids,” Cathie explained.

“The students at Huntley High are wonderful. They treat you with respect…that’s what makes the difference,” she said.

Her husband had a different reason for becoming a substitute: “I was bored, plain and simple,” Dick said.

He had experience working with people from his managing and manufacturing career and decided to try working with students for a change.

District 158 is comprised of one high school, two middle schools and five elementary schools. Initially, the Livengoods would sub for teachers at any of them. Over time, their roles shifted; they now almost exclusively sub for Huntley High School, although Cathie said she sometimes accepts jobs for the middle schools.

Dick and Cathie fill in for teachers in practically every subject, whenever the situation calls for them.

“P.E., foreign language, English, math, history, science…we do them all,” Cathie said.

Over the course of their tenure as substitutes, the Livengoods have seen numerous changes to the district, of which Dick said all of them have been positive.

Fourteen years ago, for example, Huntley High School had a 1,200-strong student body; today, it numbers approximately 3,200.

Additionally, technological increases have been a boon for teachers and students alike. Laptops, Dick said, change the way teachers teach.

Dick and Cathie had been married for six years when they moved to Sun City. Dick had been working a manufacturing position in the area and had heard about the new community.

“I knew about Sun City from the time they turned over the first spade of dirt,” he said.

They enjoy substitute teaching because it allows them to work when they want to, providing ample time off for vacations in warmer climes during the winter. They still average over 100 days a year apiece.

Entire student bodies may come and go, but the Livengoods will continue to teach. Every class, no matter the subject, represents a new opportunity — including being elected the grand marshals of the Huntley High homecoming parade two years ago.

They say substitute teaching is not for everyone, though. Qualifications include a four-year degree and a substitute teaching license.

“You have to have a lot of energy and…a lot of patience,” Cathie said.“You have to love the kids.”

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