Manguson and Nelson say farewell to Pine Island Elementary
Both teachers retire at end of 2023-24 school year
Pine Island Elementary said goodbye to two teachers at the end of the 2023-24 school year. Both Mindy Manguson and Jeff Nelson retired when the year ended.
Manguson has been teaching at Pine Island Elementary School since January 1990. Unbeknownst to her when she started at PIE, it would also be the place from where she would retire one day.
“My husband’s job brought him over here and a position opened up on Pine Island and I thought, ‘Wow, let me try’ and I got a position. The year I first started here, they were doing the Calusa Indian dig and I thought, ‘This place has history,’ there’s so much on this little island,” Manguson said.
Within the first half of her first year at the school, she said she knew there was nowhere else she wanted to be. After 34 years, she said PIE has become like a second home, complete with an amazing community. Manguson describes the school as a place filled with students she has come to love who are both intelligent and kind.
“It’s a small, island school. What I really liked about working here was the students, the staff and the parents. The community is so involved. It just clicked with me and I didn’t want to leave,” Manguson said.
She’s found the families of the students who attend the school are very invested in their education, with everyone getting involved, making PIE the closest thing to a private school she said she’s ever seen. Manguson said she would love the opportunity to come back and volunteer one day, as she said she does not feel as though she is entirely finished teaching.
Because of FRS (the Florida Retirement System), I’m not supposed to step onto campuses for a year after I retire, so, for a year, I’ll bide my time because I love working with the children. My favorite part of the day was working with kids in small group reading or math — I’ll miss that so I might volunteer and help out whoever needs me. If I sub anywhere, I don’t know that I’d sub anywhere but Pine Island,” Manguson.
‘Nelson has been teaching physical education at PIE for three years. No stranger to Pine Island, Nelson said he taught gifted students at the school for 9 years previously. The in-between years found Nelson at a school downtown as a gifted counselor and also an art teacher.
“I’ve done a lot of different things in my 30 years,” Nelson said.
Pine Island Elementary, he said, is thought of, by many, as taking a trip back to the 1960s. The tremendous community support is far-reaching, held up by many island organizations.
“I think I was very lucky to be able to teach there for the years that I have. I was really lucky to come back — a lot of times if you leave, you don’t get a chance to come back, but I did luck out to be back for the last 3 years,” Nelson said.
Due to his wife working at PIE and his being at the school so often, Nelson knew the staff before he even started at the school, so when the opportunity to teach gifted students opened years ago, he said he jumped on it.
“I’ve been to a lot of different schools and they’re all great … but out here it is something very special,” Nelson said.
He admits he’d like to stay connected to the PIE community, although he said he’s not thinking too far ahead for now, but staying open to possibilities.