Fabbro begins a new chapter
Trending
MINGO JUNCTION -- Michele Fabbro is closing the book on nearly 56 years in education, but her story is far from over.
As she began a new chapter following her retirement from Indian Creek Local Schools on June 1, she looked back on the highlights of her experience teaching children and encouraging their love of reading.
Ironically, her journey began a little differently as she planned to become an accountant; however, a suggestion by her father, Michael Belardine, a longtime educator in his own right, put her on another path.
"My dad said I'd make a good teacher," she said. "It certainly has served me very well as a career." There are many interesting moments in her life story, but an abridged version includes accomplishments both in and out of the classroom.
Born and raised in Mingo Junction, she graduated from Mingo High School in 1964 and studied at the then-College of Steubenville. Fabbro's tenure began in 1967 when she spent one semester as a student teacher at Central Grade School, which was then part of Mingo Public Schools.
She was attending night classes at college to earn her elementary education degree. She recalled being only 20 years old at the time while her pupils were 15. After completing her education and earning her certification in library media, she was assigned to the eighth-grade Ohio History class and also taught sixth-grade language arts.
A year later, she was teaching a total of 80 children in the first public kindergarten classes at Harmony Elementary. Fabbro had 44 children in the morning program and another 36 in the afternoon, but she had to build her classroom from scratch by adding toys, puzzles and books and developing the curriculum.
Many of the items came from her home library and she also bought toys and dolls and a piano to teach music. Fabbro later convinced the principal to purchase Harper Row Treasure Chest with lessons, book titles and other learning materials to aid her students.
She went on to obtain her master's degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton in 1979 and by then had married her husband, Rudy, and had two preschoolers at home. She then taught third-grade at Harmony from 1981-85 and went on to teach kindergarten at Hills Elementary.
In the meantime, she earned her library/media certification from the University of Pittsburgh. Her career at Indian Creek Schools began in 1990, where she was in a newer building with even more resources at Buchanan Junior High School. Fittingly, she had succeeded her father as librarian upon his own retirement after 18 years at the post.
"Succeeding my dad at Buchanan was bittersweet. He retired because of health issues but I was very proud to follow in his footsteps," she said.
It was also around this time that she began the media club at the encouragement of the principal and the group included 20 freshmen. The club was the first of its kind in the county and still carries on today at ICMS. It was responsible for airing the national Channel One kids' news program as well as developing articles and TV scripts for daily school broadcasts, plus it partnered with the local Friends of Indian Creek community group.
In 1995, the building demographics changed and Indian Creek Junior High, as it had become known, would educate grades 7 and 8 with Fabbro still serving as librarian. During the next five years, she would receive a grant to convert library records in all district school buildings to electronic catalogs in another first in the county. She then became the district library and literacy coordinator from 2000-2012 and created the Indian Creek Literacy Council with teachers from each school.
The council sponsored "author-in-residence" programs featuring such writers as Herman Parish (of "Amelia Bedelia" fame), award-winning Ohio author Shelley Pearsall and "Spooky Ohio" scribe Chris Woodyard, among others, and other events that drew between 200-300 people.
Fabbro succeeded in obtaining more than $130,000 in grant funding to enhance literacy in the school system and worked with Dave Moffat, multimedia instructor at Indian Creek High School, to establish a SchoolRooms information portal for K-12 students as part of a state initiative. She spent the past 11 years as a related arts teacher at ICMS, where she remained media club adviser and developed classes including library skills for fifth-grade students, media literacy for sixth grade, information literacy for seventh-graders and world culture for eighth-graders. Among those highlights were the club's "Cat in the Hat" reading program during Read Across America in March at Hills, Wintersville and Cross Creek Elementary and the School of Bright Promise and the use of candy and nut sale proceeds to help procure new technology and equipment, plus the group has attended Education Days at Kennywood and Fabbro said ICMS and ICHS students earned first- and third-place honors and a grand prize pass to the park in the past. This past fall, the club began live streaming news broadcasts on its Indian Creek Middle School Media Club YouTube page. School leaders tipped their hat to Fabbro, saying she has been invaluable to the district.
"I've worked with her for many years and she has given the district many contributions, whether it's working with students, grant writing or working with teachers. She's done a phenomenal job," said ICMS Principal Holly Minch-Hick.
"We appreciate all the time Fabbro put into the district," said Indian Creek Superintendent T.C. Chappelear. "She started programs like the media club and we appreciate the long, successful career she has had." Now that she's officially retired, Fabbro is looking forward to traveling and spending time with her children and four grandchildren. Her husband died 23 years ago, but Fabbro has carried on by being with her family and serving the community.
She has served on the Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival board of directors since 2006, beginning as a county representative and later serving as vice president and president. The organization is known for its popular events and sponsoring countless scholarships to area high school grads furthering their education. Fabbro has coordinated the Campo Italiano Italian-American cultural camp at the Italian Village in Steubenville that returned this summer with 120 children registered. The five-day program has been held for 15 years -- with the exception of the COVID era -- and included stations with arts and crafts, games, language activities, music and food. Meanwhile, Fabbro said she feels blessed to have a long tenure and simply felt ready to go.
"It was time for me to retire," she said. "I'll miss the kids and the staff, and I have great memories. It was good, it was really good. I've had a good run."