WVSD school baker retiring after 32 years

No more gooey cinnamon rolls. No more cookies fresh from the oven. No more tasty pigs in a blanket. No more Diana Ives.

Ives, the only baker in the West Valley School District, is retiring this month after 32 years of cooking and baking for the district. The district won’t replace her, so the tasty treats she prepares for students will be replaced by packaged goods. But her co-workers at Seth Woodard Elementary School are sad to see her go.

“Everybody is so sad about it,” said production manager Kim Connett. “I am really going to be bummed. It’s already a sad thing.”

Ives also made all the cakes, cobblers and other items. “Our other baker retired five years ago,” she said. “Now I do it district-wide. When you’re baking rolls and cookies, the smell goes all the way through the school. Everything is made from scratch. No mixes, nothing. That’s what I hate to see go.”

She makes everything in a tiny area tucked in the back of the kitchen. There are ovens, a table and an old Hobart mixer. The entire room feels as hot as an oven when warm weather hits.

Students coming in for lunch know Ives is leaving and have begged her to say. “The staff is just about as bad,” she said. “They’ve been trying to bribe me to stay a few more years. I think that’s what I’m going to miss the most, is the kids and the staff.”

The kitchen staff at Woodard cooks for 1,000 students in six schools, and Ives’ baking for the entire district is on top of that. She arrives at work at 5 a.m. “I’m an early bird, so even on the weekends I’m up.”

She’s been though seven bosses over the years. Connett, her current manager, is the granddaughter of one of Ives’ previous bosses. Connett was also one of the students she fed early in her career. “She served at the high school when I was there,” Connett said. “I went to school with all her kids.”

Connett has worked with Ives for 12 years. “I would have quit after the first couple if it wasn’t for her,” Connett said. “It was just so hard. She was just so patient with me. She just kept telling me to stick with it.”

Ives, 65, began working with the district when her youngest of four children started school. She wanted to be on the same schedule as her kids and have summers off. “I’ve done every job in the kitchen,” she said. “You start at the bottom and learn every job.”

She started at Argonne Junior High and moved around several times. She’s been at Woodard for 18 years. Such a lengthy stay isn’t unusual. Ives doesn’t do anything in the short term. She lived in the same house near Centennial Middle School for 41 years. She and her husband Melvin have been married for 50 years.

As a teenager she was rebellious and didn’t like school. She dropped out of high school to get married, though she later went back and finished. “I was a child bride,” she said. “I was probably my mother’s worst nightmare.”

Her husband, who is 12 years older, retired about 14 years ago. They hope to travel with their newfound time. “I kept saying give me five years and I’ll retire,” she said. “He’s been waiting a long time for me to retire.”

She’ll also be able to spend more time with her two grandchildren and get her house organized. “It’s going to take me a year to clean my house and sort things out.”

Her co-workers are so impressed by her that several of them nominated her for the district’s “You Make a Difference” award, the highest recognition given. “Her calm and encouraging spirit has touched the lives of countless students and staff in our West Valley family,” wrote one nominee.

Ives said it’s nice to know that everyone appreciates her. “It was really nice,” she said of the award. “It’s a very nice way to end.”

But the end hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s normal for her to wave farewell to students every June. But it’s not normal to be somewhere else when there are kids who want one of her famous sugar cookies. “I probably won’t miss it until September when it’s time to come back to school.”