Stella Kolb

Substitue teacher Stephanie Allen poses for a photo. Before subbing, Allen was a teacher at OHS for over 30 years. “Build strong relationship with your colleagues because you’ll need it,” Allen said. “There are some days that you have to rely on your colleagues to get through.”

After 30 years, Stephanie Allen has found her own “special kind of magic” that drives her to continue her teachings at Oakville despite retiring a few years ago.

”I love the building. I love the place. I love the kids. I love the subjects,” Allen said.  “So if it wasn’t for having to stay home and babysit, then I probably wouldn’t have retired in the first place. So then I probably would have stayed.”

Though the Mehlville School District has guidelines for when retired teachers can come back to sub, Allen finds her own work around.

“Mehlville has a rule that retired teachers can’t come back for the first six months, so I sub for a Special School District so that I could get in the door right away,” Allen said.

The decision wasn’t as clean-cut as it may seem, especially after 30 years of teaching. Making the choice to become a substitute teacher allows her the flexibility she wanted.

“I still have the passion and the drive to be a teacher for sure,” Allen said. “So this gives me the ability to make my schedule on days that I need to stay home and babysit.”

For Allen, she struggled at first with the role change because of her personality.

“One of the things that is really hard is that I am a relationship builder. And so when I do long-term subbing, I have the ability to build those relationships with students,” Allen said. “But when I’m a daily sub and just come in, even though I feel like I do build relationships with kids, it’s not nearly the same as when I was a full time teacher.”

While subbing may not be the same as a permanent teacher, Allen doesn’t let that stop her from continuing to take on the role as classroom educator.

“[I] just take a step back and think, I love this job. You know, I love coming in and spending time with students,” Allen said, “and building relationships and teaching them, and and being inspirational and really enjoy this job.”