Career & Technical Resource Educator/K-12 Counselor Gerri Harris confers with Sheyenne Valley Area Career & Technology Center welding instructor, Mike Stahl, about a student. Harris  is retiring from the area school system at the end of this school term. (Jean Schlegel/VCTR) 

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

Growing up, longtime Valley City teacher Gerri Harris never thought about what she wanted to be.
Now, after working 331/2 years in the teaching and counseling field, she’s retiring.
“I want to spend time with my ‘homegrown kids’ who live in North Carolina, and travel to return and visit here as often as possible,” Harris says.
Harris has worked at the Sheyenne Valley Area Career & Technology Center in Valley City as a vocational resource educator. She has tutored and placed special-needs students on work sites, and coordinated post-graduation transition plans.
“I’ve enjoyed talking to students to increase their awareness of the many, many work possibilities available,” she says.
She especially enjoys helping special-needs students find jobs.
School is second home
“Valley City Public Schools has been my second home,” Harris says. She graduated from Valley City High School in 1970,  and then taught there and at the career and technology center for 331/2 years. “That’s a total of 44 years as a student or worker in the Valley City Public Schools,” she said.
Harris graduated from the University of North Dakota, where she received a degree in elementary and special education, and later received a master’s degree in school counseling from North Dakota State University. After teaching half a year of high school special education in Mandan, she returned to Valley City.
Harris enjoyed elementary school counseling in Buffalo, Fingal, Litchville and Marion schools. She then became the half-time K-12 counselor at Litchville-Marion Public Schools. This made her a full-time employee, as she had also had a half-time job working with special-needs children. Her title for that job was a career and technical resource educator.
Harris feels lucky she has gotten to work with hundreds of employers, which she did through the center’s Career & Technology Resource Program.
“There are so many wonderful people in this community who go above and beyond to help out students build a good work record,” she says. “Because of these employers and staffs, students gain confidence, skills and a work ethic as such that I am so proud of each of them. Many still work in jobs that were a direct result of their work placement in the community. ...
“This is a very unique position,” she says. “I am proud of the fact that this position has stayed in Valley City.” Many jobs like hers have been discontinued due to finances, she says.
“Our area school districts have maintained this program with local dollars and support,” she says, adding that only two or three such programs exist in the state. Harris says the position will continue due to local support.
Harris and her husband, Dale, a carpenter, have three grown children: Jamie Bowen, who resides in Concord, N.C.; Laura Suchy, Thibodaux, La.; and a foster son, Dung Nguyen, who lives in Colorado.
Their grandchildren are are Madison, 7; Anthony, 7; Joshua, 4; Andy, 4; and baby Suchy, who is due in October. Her mother is Arlene Flatlie of Valley City.
Harris has also finds time to volunteer as a confirmation mentor and mentoring coordinator at Epworth United Methodist Church in Valley City.

Students always came first
Harris is known for her sincere commitment to all students, said center Director Jeff Bopp, who is committed to the education and well-being of her students.
“Even though I know she is retiring ... my experience with Mrs. Harris tells me that she isn’t about to sit around doing nothing,” Bopp says. “Grass won’t be growing under her feet.”
Students were her priority, he says.
“It simply didn’t matter what else needed to be done, her students always came first. She was always more than willing to give the extra effort to get the job done. All she required of the students was that they themselves showed interest and put forth effort.”