Paula Schuster doesnt mind the snow outside her Jefferson home. When she is not at work, teaching third grade at the Nobleboro Central School, Schuster said she likes to be at home where she takes every excuse she can to get outside. (Photo courtesy Rachael Schuster)
She lives happily in woods of Jefferson these days, in a small, charming house she helped her husband build, but there was a time when Paula Schuster couldn’t imagine living in the country. Born and raised outside Chicago, Ill., Schuster was used to the hustle and hum of a big city.
When she first came to Maine to look for work as school teacher in 1999, Schuster passed on an opportunity to interview for a position in Blue Hill, feeling the place was too far away from civilization to ever feel like home. Nobleboro, however, felt much less remote and Schuster gladly joined the Nobleboro Central School faculty later that same summer.
For the last 26 years, she has been a rock of consistency in the NCS primary wing, teaching kindergarten and second and third grades in different years.
Schuster moved to Maine with her husband Michael Schuster in 1999. The couple was introduced by friends when they were high school students. Thirty-eight years after they met, Paula Schuster is eager to credit her husband for his support, patience, and encouragement. He is a great sounding board and a willing teacher when it comes to things like ripping the deck off their house and building a new one, Schuster said.
“He is an amazing cook and I am more than willing to do the dishes,” she said. “It is a great trade off.”
After Schuster graduated from high school in 1989, she followed her future husband to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. where he studied anthropology and archeology and she majored elementary education. The couple married in 1992. After Schuster graduated the following year, the couple moved to Maui, Hawaii long enough to determine they wanted to live somewhere else.
Returning to the Chicago area, Paula Schuster looked for work until a college friend recommended she visit a large job fair at Fort Lewis College. Through that event, Schuster obtained three separate offers in Farmington Municipal Schools, a large school district based in Farmington, N.M.
Accepting one offer, Schuster spent her first professional year teaching students with behavioral challenges. At the end of that year, the principal who hired her was offered a position at another school and he took Schuster with him.
“He said ‘Would you like to come with me? You can have any grade,’” Schuster said. “I said I would love too, so I took second grade and I taught that for four years.”
Schuster described the first years of teaching as an exciting experience. In many ways she was learning as much from her students as they were learning from her.
The student population consisted of roughly thirds of Navajos, Hispanics, and Caucasians, according to Schuster. She took it upon herself to study Spanish in an effort to improve her ability to communicate with her native Spanish-speaking students.
“That was probably one of my most favorite times in my life teaching because I learned so much from the kids,” she said. “Just to see the cultural differences and similarities … the amount of importance those families placed on education. I think people don’t always see that and I would have to say the folks that I worked with, and the students, were some of the most hardworking people you have ever seen in your life, especially because they knew that this was an opportunity not to be taken lightly. They were some of the most kind and awesome people and I learned so much from them.”
The couple comfortable in New Mexico, and Schuster was happy with her job, but while they were living in Farmington, drugs and gang violence became increasingly prevalent in their neighborhood, she said. When someone was murdered behind their house in 1998, the Schusters started thinking seriously about relocating.
At the time, Michael Schuster’s grandmother lived in Rockland. The Schusters had vacationed in Maine a couple times previously but never thought about moving. However, going into 1999, Michael Schuster suggested another visit and urged his wife to send her resume out ahead of them.
Before making the trip to Maine that year, the couple decided to put their New Mexico house on the market, just to gauge interest more than anything else, Paula Schuster said. Much to their surprise, the home sold within 48 hours of being listed.
The next few months were a whirlwind as the Schusters wrapped up their affairs in New Mexico, moved 2,000 miles to Maine, and found a new place to live. Looking for a home to buy, the Schusters found a fixer-upper in Warren that met their needs and fit their budget.
“My husband, God bless him, he put a ton of work into it,” Paula Schuster said. “It was a money pit, literally, and then after that we’re like, ‘OK, we have to do something else.’ Then one of our good friends said ‘There is a property across the street from us,’ so my husband built the house we are living in here.”
By the time the couple arrived in Maine in June 1999, Schuster had two interviews lined up; one in Nobleboro and one in Blue Hill, and she had no idea where either one was in relation to Rockland.
“Mike and I came out and we were here for a few days and he said, ‘Why don’t we drive up to Blue Hill just so you have a clue what it is,’” Schuster said. “We got up there and I’m a suburban girl, right outside Chicago. I called them up and said ‘I’m sorry I just don’t think this would work.’”
She did take the interview at NCS, which went very well, Schuster said.
“They were starting an all-day kindergarten program,” she said. “I went and interviewed and they offered me the job that day. They literally followed me out to the parking lot.”
That first year at NCS was a hectic whirlwind, Schuster said, but she loved the work, enjoyed the people she worked with, and felt welcomed by the community. As she helped the kindergarten program get off the ground, she was fortunate enough to have experienced teachers available nearby and a helpful support staff. Schuster specifically cited now retired support staff member Nancy Whitney for her indefatigable assistance that first year.
“It was kind of crazy, but I just loved the people,” Schuster said. “I had parents going in and the staff was great and just getting this new program up was awesome. I was very fortunate to have the folks at (Great Salt Bay Community School) who had done some of this work as my cohort.”
Schuster moved to second and later to third grade, where she remains today. Without casting aspersions on any other grade level, Schuster said she really enjoys teaching third grade. At that age, students are still excited about coming to school and they still welcome help and approval, she said.
“I love the age and they still love school,” she said.
Twenty-six years later, nobody is more surprised than Schuster is to find herself one of the veterans on the faculty. Not only are many of the staff members professional colleagues, many of them are personal friends, Schuster said. It’s a collegial group that often meets outside of work for one reason or another.
“It’s just terrific because there’s a group of us that have been there together for years,” she said. “I just feel grateful for everything I have and for the people I’m surrounded by every day when I’m at school.”
When she is not a work, Schuster likes to spend time with her husband and their daughter Rachael Schuster. A 2019 Lincoln Academy graduate, Rachael Schuster studied English and theater at Salem State University in Salem, Mass. She currently resides with her parents in Jefferson and works as a support staff member at NCS.
At home, Paula Schuster likes to read, garden, work on the house and essentially take any excuse to get outside, she said. She also loves spending time with her mother, Betti Brownback, whenever she can. Brownback moved to Lincoln County around 2011 to be closer to her daughter’s family.
Schuster’s other passion is following sports, specifically the New England Patriots, a team she adopted shortly after moving to Maine. Growing up around Chicago, she enjoyed following Chicago sports. However, in contrast to recent New England fandom, there were relatively few bright spots for Chicago sports fans over the years, she said.
“Well, it’s kind of funny because when we moved here, the Patriots started winning, and then you had every single team win, so that was kind of fun,” she said.
With more than 30 years of teaching experience behind her, Schuster said retirement is coming into view over the horizon but she has no firm plans to stop. Still, she loves working in a classroom and wouldn’t consider move into administration or changing her specialty.
“I still enjoy it but you know, the (earliest) retirement age is 62 and that will come quicker than I think,” she said. “I don’t know if I would stop there … I really enjoy it. I wouldn’t want to do anything else … I just love teaching.”
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