Second choice now job she loves

When Paula Heimbigner was thinking about a career, she thought maybe she wanted to be an architect.

But back when Heimbigner was in high school, girls weren’t allowed to take the mechanical drawing classes offered at her high school – those classes were restricted to boys.

When she went to college, she couldn’t take the program at Washington State University because she hadn’t taken any of the prerequisites for the program, the same classes she was denied because of her gender.

She ended up at Eastern Washington University, eventually getting into education. She initially didn’t want to be a teacher, since both of her parents were teachers, but she ended up believing that she would enjoy it.

“(I thought) this is something I can do,” she said.

Now, after 41 years of teaching – 40 of those years in the West Valley School District – Heimbigner is retiring, but she doesn’t regret that she couldn’t be an architect.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, being a woman in the workforce was much different than it is today. Heimbigner said it was common for employers to ask female job applicants if they had any plans to marry. Heimbigner said she was asked that question when she was first hired.

She started at Dishman Elementary teaching fifth grade. She became engaged to her husband Dennis that fall. He proposed at the school one day between reading and recess.

He was in the Army and the two knew they would have to move to Georgia for a year. Although she gave up her job to follow her husband, Heimbigner said she was fortunate when another teacher retired upon her return so she could again work for West Valley schools.

One memory that stands out of her years at Dishman was that as late as 1972 women teachers were not allowed to wear pants. They always had to wear dresses and skirts.

It wasn’t practical. The teachers had to be outside during recess and for bus duty. Heimbigner approached her principal and told him the women were going to start wearing pants.

She also remembers when she was pregnant with her first child, she felt she needed to keep it a secret even though she had terrible nausea. The doctors put her on bed rest on the second day of school and the students were divided up and placed in other classes.

She saw them later in her career when she was working at West Valley High School. They teased her that she had abandoned them.

“The kids never forget,” she said.

Over the years, Heimbigner has worked as a kindergarten teacher at Seth Woodward, as a social studies, English and P.E. teacher at Park Junior High, and as the librarian at West Valley High School. Most recently, she’s been at Contract Based Education, teaching social studies, current world affairs, civics and being an adviser to the students.

She said she has enjoyed being able to work with her students on an individual level in the school. There are many pictures of former students pinned to her bulletin board in her classroom.

Her career has spanned four decades and massive social change. She said she has worked under about six or seven superintendents and many different principals.

“Somehow the teachers just seem to…we survive,” she said.

Now that her retirement is approaching, she is planning to travel a little around the United States, continue her weekly golf game and spend time with her mother, 91-year-old Bernadine Langfieldt, who lives with Heimbigner and her husband.

“She’s always my mentor,” she said.

She also plans to volunteer at schools or other organizations helping children to read. As a teacher and a librarian, she has always stressed the importance of reading.

“If they’re good readers, they can write,” she said.

There will also be days when she hopes to substitute teach at CBE.

“I’ve got plenty to keep me busy,” she said.

She still plans to see the friends and co-workers she has had over the years, but she will miss her students the most.

“I’ll probably miss the kids,” she said. “That’s what I think about at night.”