![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-17T183823.131.webp?resize=542%2C439&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cI still enjoy what I do, and that just fuels me to strive and be great at what I do now,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the school day, she helps children with reading and math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of school, she tutors students daily for free. She is retiring at the end of this school year, and her son, Renard, wanted to recognize her for her dedication and commitment to her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019ll go to the moon and back for you,” Renard Thomas said. “And especially for her students here at RBW.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was featured as an A+ Teacher two years ago. He was a reading coach who was driving students to and from school during a bus driver shortage. Now he\u2019s the assistant principal at Loughman Oaks Elementary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust to see how she interacted with students, that made me want to become an educator, as well,” Rendard said. “And she pushed me to get my bachelor\u2019s degree, then my master\u2019s degree, as well.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edith Thomas said retiring now wasn\u2019t the plan, but it\u2019s what is best for her health. Thomas said she plans to volunteer at the school a few days a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to miss it,” she said. “But I\u2019m always going to come back. What I hope to leave behind is my compassion, my love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Edith Thomas has been working in Polk County Public Schools for 31 years. She started as the school nurse at R. Bruce Wagner Elementary and then decided to become a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"2787","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDJcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMi0xN1QxODM4MjMuMTMxLndlYnA_Zml0PTU0MiUyQzQzOSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IHRlYWNoZXIgcmV0aXJpbmcgYWZ0ZXIgMzEgeWVhcnMgaW4gZWR1Y2F0aW9uIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.R1BYKB1Kgd8JvFijd-J_ufvn5rHt_plaesLJOItU6rsMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":62759,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-17T183823.131.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[2787],"tags":[13690],"class_list":["post-62758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-polk-county-teacher-retiring-after-31-years-in-education"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62760,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62758\/revisions\/62760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}