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Veteran Timber Ridge School employee locks up for last time

The Winchester Star - 3/5/2018

The Winchester Star

CROSS JUNCTION — When Jim Barretta Jr. stepped onto the Timber Ridge School campus in 1971, he was just a college graduate from upstate New York looking for his first teaching job.

“I was walking into the unknown,” he said.

Forty-seven years later, Barretta, 68, is once again walking into uncharted territory — this time into retirement.

Through his tenure at the school, he has met every single student — 2,698 to be exact — and every staff member who has worked at Timber Ridge.

“I don’t know how many people can say that,” he said. “I’ve seen every staff and student who has come into the program. I feel very fortunate to be able to have done that.”

Friday was Barretta’s last day at Timber Ridge, a residential treatment facility and school for adolescent boys between the ages of 10 and 21 who are emotionally disturbed or who have behavior disorders. He retired as the assistant director of educational services, a position he held for 26 years.

The school officially opened in November 1970.

A lot has changed at Timber Ridge since Barretta started out as a math and physical education teacher.

Back then, the 20 or so students came from intact homes but were simply falling behind in school. They often came from military families. Now, the 50 or so students often arrive from dysfunctional homes, many with single parents.

Back then, the students lived in trailers and cinder block units. Over the years, that changed to log-cabin buildings with flat-screen TVs.

There also was no gymnasium in the early years, which meant students were outside in mid-December, sometimes playing hockey on the nearby frozen lake. Over the years, the school earned accreditation and expanded its facilities.

One of Barretta’s biggest accomplishments was when he started the football team in 1974 upon the direction of Al Leary, founder of Timber Ridge (at the time, the school was called the Leary Educational Center).

“It gave the guys the opportunity their friend might have or a kid in their neighborhood might have,” said Barretta, who served as the athletic director, coach and team driver.

There’s also the time he and Bob Gordanier, board member of the Leary Educational Center, discussed ways to acknowledge the kids who competed in the Presidential Physical Fitness Program but didn’t accomplish its goals. Through Gordanier’s military connections, the two were able to get the President’s Council on Physical Fitness to include a participation patch, which was implemented nationwide.

“Anytime they get rewarded and recognized, they feel great, especially if they failed before,” he said of the youths. “Some of these kids were the last to be picked in public school. This gave them some pride.”

Barretta also started the student yearbook, which came out from 1974 to 1977. It eventually had to stop after new regulations on student confidentiality came out. For about 15 years, he also made the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival’s Queen’s pie on campus with the help of the youths. And for 47 years, he arrived early every day to make coffee for the teaching staff, and every Friday, he went into all the classrooms and buildings to make sure the doors and windows were locked for the weekend.

Executive Director John Lamanna said that nobody at Timber Ridge has given so much for so long as Barretta, whom he called passionate, dedicated and kid-focused.

“The hallmark of our profession is to care about kids even at their worst,” he said. “Jim personifies that. He cared about kids when they were at their worst and because of that, the kids got better.”

Caleb Killen, a 17-year-old student from Broadway, said this past winter, Barretta bought him colorful pens as a Christmas present because he’s an artist.

“Every time I asked for help, he always listened and helped me get my problem resolved,” he said. “Everybody here is going to miss him.”

Barretta credits his son, Brian James, and his wife, Martha, for being supportive over the years. In retirement, he plans to cook more, do a little bit of traveling and continue volunteering around the community.

On Friday, as he has done for 47 years, he went into every building one more time to make sure they were locked tight.

Why?

“I want to be known as a role model,” he said. “I don’t want to shortchange the program.”

— Contact Rebecca Layne at rlayne@winchesterstar.com