Clendenon gets Jake Award

When Betty Clendenon strolled into Irving College School as a first-grader in the 1950s, she had no idea how long she’d stay in that building.

She made it through 12 years of school and is now preparing to enter her 58th year of teaching - all at Irving College.

“I was a sheltered farm girl living out in the country, so as a 6-year-old I didn’t want to go to school,” said Betty. “I tried to convince my mom to get a job there so I wouldn’t be by myself, but she wouldn’t do it. The first six years of my life, and the four years I went off to college, are the only 10 years that I haven’t been part of Irving College School.”

The playground at Irving College was named in her honor last year, and Betty earned another accomplishment on Thursday during countywide in-service for Warren County Schools. She was presented the Jake Award.

In accepting the Jake doll, Betty conveyed the message she tells her students year after year.

“I tell them I love you, I like you, and I think the world of you,” said Betty. “That’s not going to change. Now you might do something that we need to address, but I want you to know I still love you.”

Betty is preparing to teach a class of 18 second-graders this year. She said that’s a much more manageable number than when she taught 39 students her first year.

“J.K. Stanley was the principal, and I went to the auditorium to get my students on the first day,” said Betty. “He pointed to the first three rows and told them to go with me. I didn’t have a classroom. I had the back corner of the auditorium for 39 students. We didn’t have desks either. We just had auditorium chairs. Most of the students did their work by sitting on the floor and using the seat of the chair as their desk.”

The auditorium at Irving College has since been leveled, but Betty says a large part of the school is still the same as when she was a student there in the 1950s and ’60s.

While it’s common for teachers to move up the ladder, so to speak, and leave the classroom when they accumulate more years of experience, Betty says the classroom is where she’s been her entire career and it’s where she wants to stay.

As for the Jake Award, Betty is the first educator outside of Warren County High School to receive it. She will get to keep Jake for several weeks before deciding the next recipient. The only stipulation is that it goes to someone at another school.