After 30 years teaching Marketing/DECA at Grayson County High School’s Career and Technical Education Center (CATE) Cynthia Smith is retiring on June 30. While the necessary retirement papers have yet to be submitted, Smith said her impending retirement is the “worst kept secret in town.”
Regardless of the proper paperwork having yet to be filed, Thursday night’s School Board meeting was a de facto expression of appreciation for Smith, and the impressive accomplishments that have dotted her illustrious career.
One of the evening’s highlights was when Smith was presented with an exquisite framed poster with a Charles Kuralt quote – “Good Teachers Know How To Bring Out The Best In Students.” The gift also listed the impressive state, regional and national recognition Smith has received in her 30 years at Grayson County High School; including Smith being recognized as the Kentucky Marketing Educator of the Year in 2000, 2002 and 2007, as well as Region 2 Marketing Teacher of the Year in 1993, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2016, for her exemplary work coordinating the high school’s award-winning DECA program.
Additionally, the framed poster noted that eight times during Smith’s tenure the GCHS DECA program was ranked in the top 10 nationally in Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraising, as well as Smith having a DECA student nationally recognized every year since 2001. Smith has also produced 23 regional DECA officers, 16 state officers and two national officers under her leadership.
GCHS Principal Todd Johnston, with an emotional Smith by his side, said Smith is a “Teacher, coach, director, friend and easy to work with. She supports everything we do, and we would not be ‘Distinguished’ without her.”
Leah Lovell, who graduated from GCHS four years ago, then graduated from WKU in three years, and is now a business teacher at Breckinridge County High School, gave Smith perhaps the utmost compliments by saying that, “I would not be where I am today without Ms. Smith.”
Clearly taken by surprise by the recognition, an emotional Smith said upon her retirement that, “I’m going to enjoy my front porch and my coffee, but I’m going to miss … “
In describing Smith, the teachers and students at the Career and Technical Center most often said Smith was a leader. A leader that is to be emulated and followed because the path Smith cleared for her students led to career success, and a future worth living.
