The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Waitsburg fifth grade students will be seeing more of a familiar face than usual this year. Long-time substitute Wenda Parr has been hired as the full-time fifth grade teacher for the 2014-15 school year. Parr replaces Jennifer Fischer, who has taken a special education position in College Place, closer to her home. Parr, who is no stranger to challenges, looks forward to tackling this new chapter in her life.

Parr grew up in LaGrande, Ore., then lived with her husband in California until he lost his battle with colon cancer. Parr was six months pregnant with her youngest son at the time. She then moved to Pendleton, Ore. to live with her dad while she attended school at Blue Mountain Community College. Her intent was to earn a transfer degree, then pursue a career teaching physical education. Another setback -- a herniated disc sustained while picking up her two-year-old - put that dream on hold because her injury limited her ability to take many of the classes that were required.

While in school, Wenda had begun dating the man she would later marry, Rob Parr, a Milton-Freewater native. She moved briefly to Clarkston, Wash. where she spent one semester attending college in Lewiston, Ida. before the couple found a home for sale in Waitsburg and decided to move here together. Wenda, Rob, and her two boys, Gary and Ryan Timms, moved to Waitsburg in 1997, just after the big flood. Today the Parrs live in that same home, Rob works at the Washington State Penitentiary and the boys are grown and living on their own.

After the move, Parr had to determine where to go with her education. "I needed something where I wouldn't have to travel far or sit for long periods of time," she said. She earned her Bachelor's in Social Science through WSU's extended degree program. "My thought at the time was that I would continue on and get my Masters in Social Work." While she earned her degree, Parr began filling in at Waitsburg schools as a para professional which, once again, changed her career course.

Russ Knopp was elementary school principal at the time, as well as Parr's proctor, so she was a frequent visitor to the office. After earning her Bachelor's Degree, School Secretary Linda Henze encouraged Parr to get her emergency teaching certificate so that she could substitute teach for the district. "I became a substitute teacher and I loved that! I decided to get my teaching degree and the Masters in Social Science went by the wayside," she said. Parr continued to substitute teach while completing her Bachelors in Education, which she earned in 2007.

Parr said she hadn't applied for positions outside Waitsburg, Dixie and Prescott because she really enjoys those schools and she has kept fairly busy subbing. In fact, Parr ended last year with two long-term substitute positions. She worked from January to spring break in Prescott for Mrs. Adams (2nd and 3rd grade) and taught from spring break to year end in Waitsburg for Mrs. Fischer (6th grade). "I really enjoyed those experiences. It was nice knowing what I was going to be doing and to plan. Then this opportunity came up and I knew the time was right," she said.

"My favorite part of teaching is watching the kids grow and learn and take in what they need to know to be successful -- to gain that feeling that they can do it." Parr says she hopes to help her students develop a strong sense of self-esteem, to feel safe and to know that someone really cares. "All children should know that they are cared about," she said.

She is most passionate about the subject of reading. "It's so important. I want children to want to read and to love to read. In our society today, sitting down with a book is not as popular as it used to be due to all of the entertainment that technology provides in this day and age. As a mom, a teacher and an avid reader, I would like to bring the joy of reading back to children via the classroom," she said.

If Mrs. Parr's fifth graders experience even some of what she desires for them, their year is sure to be well above par.