Swedberg retiring from Wallace Schools

LaDonna Swedberg, music teacher at Wallace Schools, has decided to retire following this school year after 24 years at her job.

The preschool and K-12 music teacher said she has always been “very involved” with music throughout her life, and her parents always encouraged and helped foster her interest in music even when it might have been difficult for them to provide lessons and instruments sometimes.

“My parents made sure I had every opportunity musically, and I know that wasn’t easy on them financially,” Swedberg said. “But it was just a part of us.”

She didn’t originally plan to be a teacher, however. When Swedberg attended college, she decided to be a music major with a focus in merchandising. After speaking with hher advisor and learning her options in the music field would be limited, she changed to a music education major.

“My advisor asked what I wanted to do with music merchandising, and I said I didn’t know, I just didn’t want to teach,” she said. “He told me you can do any career with music education but you can only teach with music merchandising. I was like, ‘Okay, I will get my music education degree, but I’m not teaching.’ Famous last words.”

She then discovered her passion for teaching youth about her other passion, music.

“My passion is my family, then music and kids,” Swedberg said. “I got to combine all of that, because I got to teach all six of my kids, and I get to share my passion of music with other kids!”

Swedberg first taught over in Maywood and Medicine Valley in the ‘80s after graduating from college. After resigning, a cousin of hers on the Wallace school board informed her of an open position as the music teacher.

She started work at Wallace Schools in 1988 where she was the music teacher and the assistant volleyball coach, something Swedberg said she doesn’t think many people know about her.

She worked at the school up until May of 1991, specifically the day before her daughter child was born. She then remained at home, which is her childhood home between Wallace and North Platte, giving lessons and teaching at a couple of private schools in North Platte.

When Swedberg’s oldest son reached third grade, they decided to send him to Wallace Schools, and at that same time, the music teacher position opened back up, which Swedberg took in 1997.

“I figured the job may not open up again very soon,” she said. “I wasn’t planning to do that when I was seven months pregnant and expecting our fifth child, and we were moving. That was an eventful year.”

She has been teaching local Wildcats ever since, and is also the school’s student council sponsor.

Since returning to Wallace, she has made many memories that she thinks of fondly.

For example, when her son Lane was in kindergarten, they did an all-school project about veterans which students and teachers worked on throughout the year.

For example, she said some of the history classes studied veterans and even interviewed and did reports on local veterans. The home economics class studied canteens and served a luncheon based around that, she added. She also noted the English classes wrote poems.

“We called it Heritage Night,” Swedberg said. “We had sent out invitations to area communities inviting our veterans to come.”

They put all of the projects together the night of the school’s spring concert, and had students read poems in between the musical performances.

“It was a very emotional program for some of our veterans, especially for some Vietnam veterans, as it was the first time they had really felt like they had been honored for their service,” Swedberg noted. “I think that’s why it’s so memorable to me, as I had never had a program like that when I was going to school. It was probably the most educational thing I’ve been through.”

Over the years, Swedberg has also taken kids to New York, and traveled with them for regional and national honor choirs.

“I also think every concert has special memories,” Swedberg added. “That’s a lot of concerts, but they’re all special.”

One of the things Swedberg loves most about teaching, and what she will miss the most, is sharing music with kids and combining her passions.

“I love being with kids every day and doing music every day,” she said. “It’s the best of both worlds!”

Swedberg said she started thinking about retirement when COVID struck, and everything changed, especially for music departments.

“I’m not a strong technology person, and the kids are,” she said. “I was really worried that I am cheating the kids because of my lack of knowledge in that. That’s how they’re learning in every other class, but I’m not doing enough of that here. Teaching via technology last spring really made me start thinking, ‘oh my gosh, I am not equipped to do this.’ I don’t know how to teach music through a computer.”

It did, however, get her out of her box and forced her to expand, Swedberg noted. She said it was like she was pushed into the deep end of a pool and had to sink or swim.

“So I was paddling like a crazy fool!” she joked.

Despite not finding herself tech savvy, Swedberg found projects for students to do to continue practicing music, and “explore music in a whole new way.” It was like music therapy for the students, she said.

COVID is not the only reason for Swedberg’s retirement, though. She noted both her parents and her in-laws are in their 80s, so she wants to be available if they need her, because teaching can be a “very demanding job.”

After retirement, Swedberg plans to continue to give lessons at her sons’ studio, Prodigy Studios, as well as help them to expand their business. She also hopes to, in general, spend more time with her family, especially her grandchild and her parents.

She will stay in the local area where she and her husband farm. Swedberg directed at her final public K-12 concert Monday evening at the spring concert, which included all of the music classes. She will finish out her year with district music contest Friday, April 23.

The final concert of the year will be the preschool concert Tuesday, April 27 at 5 p.m., which is followed by the student council’s family fun night fundraiser for leukemia and lymphoma.

Once Swedberg spends some time going over music contest results, she said she wants to bring back some activities that had been put on the back-burner earlier in the year that students would like to pick up once again.

These activities include bucket drumming, which they started earlier this year, boomwhackers and new pep band music to play around with.

“I also have some musical experiences I want to share with the choirs,” she added.

Overall, the last 24 years at Wallace Schools has been a great experience for Swedberg, allowing her to live her life sharing her passions with others.

“There’s no place I would have rather been all those years,” Swedberg said.