By Karen Aquino

French teacher Jane Matz has announced that she plans to retire at the end of the school year. She has been teaching on the Coldwater campus for 23 years and previously taught at the university level in New York and California for 10 years.
Matz has been tutoring kids at a local public elementary school for several years and hopes to devote more time to tutoring and other charity work.
During the summer, Matz will take a walking trip through England, or, as she calls it, “Jane Austen Country.”
Among her plans for her retirement, Matz hopes to spend more time with her grown sons, resume her study of the Spanish language and spend time traveling with her husband, a federal judge, abroad.
“We went to Macchu Picchu a couple years ago, and we were in Russia last summer,” she said. “Since he often travels for his work, now I’ll be able to join him more often,” she said.
Apart from teaching AP French Language and AP French Literature classes, Matz also serves as coordinator for the Senior Independent Study program.
The program will be headed next year by English teacher Geraldine Harding.
According to Matz, the two things she will miss the most is seeing students develop their interests through the Senior Independent Study program and her rapport with her students, who “for the most part are wonderful people, very smart and kind. I love walking into class every day, and [leaving teaching] was the hardest thing I dealt with in my decision,” she said.
The merger of the Harvard and Westlake schools is one of Matz’s favorite memories from her career at the school.
“I thought it would be wonderful for the kids and teachers to be in a co-ed environment,” Matz said.
Matz has ruled out a future return to teaching.
“I look at it as the end of my teaching career,” she said. “It’s been a long career, and a wonderful career, and now I’m ready to move on to other things.”