2026 Ms. Wire's Retirement

Thank you, Ms. Wire!  After 21 years of teaching at HPCA, our beloved 1st-grade teacher, Barbara Wire, is retiring. We decided to, literally, give her her flowers in a surprise chapel, with each student that she had taught in the school giving her a tissue paper flower. Ms. Wire has dedicated–and we use that word "dedicated" very intentionally–the entirety of her life to instructing children. Instructing them in sight words and subtraction problems, certainly, but far more so in the way of Jesus. Walking into her classroom during the school day, it is more than likely you would catch her leading the class in an interactive project (that often made us wish, as adults, we could be in her class), opening up Scripture to tell of God’s unfolding story for her students, or passionately encouraging her students on their road to literacy. Stopping by after school, you would most likely still see her with students, spending extra time with anyone in need of added support, giving them homework help and a tasty snack. The whole of Barb’s life has been given, first and foremost, to Jesus, and, very quickly after, to her students. She is the type of person who will ask about an update to a prayer request you forgot you had ever mentioned, who will go to all lengths to make sure her students are well-educated and cared for, and who looks to her Lord to sustain her in all of it. While we will miss Ms. Wire’s thoughtfulness, humor, and passion filling our halls each day, we know that these things will all continue to reside deeply in the hearts and minds of the hundreds of students she has taught. Thank you, Barb, for being a loving co-worker, a dedicated teacher, and a kind friend. We, and our students, look more like the Savior because of you.