For Karen Theiss the job of school nurse in Montauk has always been about creating a safe environment for children. “It’s not just fixing,” she said by phone last week, “it’s making better.”
Ms. Theiss moved out to the East End in 1983, working in restaurants until the school’s previous nurse asked her to substitute on occasion. Eventually, when the position became open, she applied for it full time.
“I thought it would be a great spot to be with my daughter,” she said, adding that she “knew everyone around town and loved their children.”
Ms. Theiss’s letter of retirement was accepted by the Montauk School Board at its meeting on Jan. 28. Diane Hausman, the board’s president, read it aloud with a choked-up voice and teary eyes.
“I’ve had the honor to work here at Montauk School as your nurse for the last 26 years,” the letter read. “The trust that was bestowed on me to take care of the children was challenging, humbling, but above all rewarding.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for us,” Ms. Hausman said, highlighting a particular instance when Ms. Theiss helped her son. “He never would have got through the earth science regents if it wasn’t for you,” she said, “so I can speak from the heart on that one.” By phone Ms. Theiss spoke about the positive effect that children at the school have had on her life. “If I’m having a bad day, I go down to the kindergarten and pre-K,” she said, “and they run up and hug me, and then my day is good.”
Yet the job of school nurse is far more complicated than many might think.
“Some people think it’s just Band-Aids, but it’s a lot more,” Ms. Theiss said. “You help with the children and you help with the families, and you help with the holidays and you try and do whatever you can to make the children’s lives better, that’s all.”
Her understated and humble approach to her profession has been felt across the school.
“Coming into the school last year and having big shoes to fill, and not knowing the ins and outs, and figuring it out as I went,” Joshua Odom, the district superintendent and principal, said at the meeting, “Karen, you were an immense source of support for me.”
In the future Ms. Theiss would like to do some traveling but is mainly looking forward to tending her garden and fruit trees. “I also have a beehive,” she added, “hopefully I’ll get two or three of them.”
Ms. Theiss will continue as nurse until the end of June, and in that time she expects to be able to train her successor. She told the board that she hopes that person “knows the community, knows the people, knows the children, and cares for the community like I do.”