Choir teacher Sheree Stoppel, who has been teaching since 1980, will retire from her current position at the end of the 2015-16 school year after six years at the school.

Now that she has announced her retirement, Stoppel is looking for something do in the future, although she has not yet decided what.

“I have put some feeders out to universities and the junior college about teaching courses,” Stoppel said. “I’m not done working, I just would like to explore other venues.”

According to Stoppel, the students have been one of her favorite things about teaching.

“The kids here are awesome. The choir department, they’re like sponges: They want to learn, they want more,” Stoppel said. “It’s the best part of my day when they walk through the door.”

Stoppel does more than just teach choir in her classroom, according to junior Lisa Earlenbaugh.

“She makes it all about the community and the family and all of us being together,” Earlenbaugh said. “One of her quotes is, ‘You have to love the sound of the ensemble more than the sound of your own voice,’ so it’s all about this unity and I think that makes her different.”

Stoppel said she focuses on having her students become a family because it creates a stronger choir.

“If you look around my room, most of the posters that are on the wall don’t have anything to do with music. [They’re] about being a better person, about being a part of a bigger thing,” Stoppel said. “There’s a lot of family stuff in here, and I have always believed that makes us work better as a team.”

Along with turning her students into a team, Stoppel has aimed to make her students well rounded people.

“My philosophy has always been that I try to be a better person every day, and so I try to instill that philosophy in my singers,” Stoppel said. “As singers, we can get a lot of attention, and we forget that we need to give back. So, I try to incorporate community service projects, ‘What can we do for each other?’ and things like that so they don’t forget that the other side of the coin is important too.”

Earlenbaugh said having Stoppel as a teacher has affected her personally.

“She has so many life quotes that she gives us every day, but a lot of it is really just about family,” Earlenbaugh said. “As a theater person and someone who tends to sing solo a lot of the time, she’s helped me to realize the ensemble is really important.”

Although she is retiring, Stoppel said she will miss the school.

“I love the camaraderie. For this school, this is home for the singers,” Stoppel said. “A student told me once, ‘This is my sport,’ and it truly is that here. They get to be around people that think like they do, they feel safe. That’s the stuff that fuels my fire.”