Two seasoned educators have finished their last year in north Jefferson County.

Warrior Elementary School principal Mike Frugoli and Snow Rogers Elementary School principal Karen White both recently announced their retirements, making the 2010-2011 school year their last.

Frugoli spent the last seven years of his career at Warrior Elementary, and he says it was the best years of his career.

“I’ve enjoyed everything about Warrior,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody’s name… And if someone had two nickels, they’d give you one. That’s the kind of community you want to be involved with.”

Warrior Elementary School changed from a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school into a kindergarten-through-fifth grade school when Frugoli accepted the job, and the middle school students mostly moved over to North Jefferson Middle School in Kimberly. He’s been in elementary education throughout most of his career.

“I felt like it was my calling. It’s where I really hit my stride,” said Frugoli.

Frugoli is one of the founders of the “Strong Schools, Strong Community,” program, at which community leaders and school administrators from the local school feeder pattern gather once a year at Warrior Elementary School to discuss current issues.

“There’s so many good things going on in Warrior,” he said.

Karen White said she knew all her life that she wanted to be a teacher. After 32 years, she’s hanging up her hat. She said she’s proud of the work her students have done, and that she’s leaving with high test scores.

“But, I don’t take credit for it. The teachers at Snow Rogers are great. I just created an avenue for them to succeed.”

Despite her retirement, White will hardly be a couch potato; she’s volunteering to help Jefferson County school administrators in any way possible.

“I just want to come in and do back door stuff, just be another hand. Being an administrator is a hard job, and it can be a lonely job,” she said. “I was born wanting to be a teacher, and now I’m ready to do it another way.”

She said she also wants more time with her grandchildren.

“They want more of my time and energy, and it was more than I had left to give,” said White. “I decided that it was time.”

White said economic crises and proration have hit teachers hard, but that it isn’t a factor in her decision to leave. She actually started working as an educator in the midst of a period of proration in the 1980s.

White also speaks highly of her successor, Laura Ware, who previously worked as a principal in the Hueytown area.

She said she feels like she’s leaving the school in good hands.

“To be a teacher, you have to love it, have a passion for it,” she said. “Just loving children is not enough.”