Longtime Central Unified teachers retire together after 74 years at Liddell Elementary

Mary McHatton and Lisa Papaleo are closing out their careers together at Liddell Elementary, taking with them 74 combined years in Central Unified and nearly as many years of shared history. The two teachers have been fixtures at the campus since it opened in 1998, a rare kind of continuity in a district where staff turnover can quickly erase the rhythms that hold a school together.

Their careers have long run in parallel. McHatton and Papaleo graduated college together, taught together at Madison Elementary, and even interviewed for their Liddell jobs as a pair. By the end of the school year, they will retire side by side, ending an era that shaped generations of Central Unified families in the neighborhood around the Fresno campus.

Their departure also highlights how much classrooms have changed since they first started teaching. Papaleo said Liddell opened with classes of about 20 students, while some rooms now are closer to 28. Both teachers described a profession that has become more dependent on technology and more attentive to social-emotional learning, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. What once centered almost entirely on instruction now also includes helping children manage stress, recover from disruption and stay connected to school.

McHatton said one of the most meaningful parts of the job has been teaching the children of former students. That kind of overlap, where one family sends multiple generations through the same school, is part of what makes veteran teachers so important to a campus. They carry the history of siblings, parents and grandparents, along with the unwritten knowledge of how a school community works.

Papaleo’s own career reflected the same habit of continued growth she encouraged in students. At age 50, she earned a master’s degree in educational technology, and later she became a certified yoga instructor. Both moves underscored a lesson that teachers at Liddell have modeled for years: learning does not stop with a classroom schedule or a degree on the wall.

McHatton and Papaleo said they are looking forward to spending more time with their grandchildren, but they will miss their colleagues and the school community they helped build. For Liddell Elementary, their retirement is more than a personnel change. It is a reminder that when longtime teachers leave, districts do not just lose two employees. They lose memory, relationships and the kind of steady presence that helps a school feel like home.