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Dorothy Flora has been a cornerstone of the San Antonio Christian Schools (SACS) family for twenty-three years. Now, after all of her years of service, she’s retiring. Throughout her time here at SACS, she’s impacted countless students, loved every person that has walked through her door, and been an amazing Christian example. It’s going to be hard to picture SACS without Mrs. Flora.

SACS has always been a special place for Flora. After taking a ten-year hiatus from teaching to raise her three children, she decided to return to the teaching world in 1987. She originally started out at the Burwood campus teaching middle school. Flora, remembering her first year at SACS, shared, “I hadn’t taught for ten years, so it was a little bit harder adjusting to the classroom again.” Luckily, she had Matt Veldt, a fellow teacher, around to help her out. “He was really light-hearted and would just always remind me, ‘it’s not a big deal’,” explained Flora. Becoming friends with Veldt was just one of her first memories at SACS, but it was definitely not the last.

If you ask Flora her favorite memory, she’ll get a faraway look in her eyes and answer, “Being here with my kids.” The three Flora children, Ashley, Laura, and Dusty, all attended SACS from kindergarten until graduation. “Just to be as a family, go to school as a family, go to games as a family, go home as a family, was so special,” Flora said. “We had such good family time and memories.”

However, even more special about Flora’s SACS experience was the fact that she was able to teach across the hall from her husband, junior Bible teacher Rich Flora. For the Floras, being together at work is normal. When Mrs. Flora first began to teach in Dallas, Mr. Flora became one of the coaches. When Mr. Flora built fireplaces, Mrs. Flora would tag along and help him lay the rock. Together, they led a child evangelism course. So, it wasn’t strange when two years after Mr. Flora got a job at SACS, Mrs. Flora joined him. “We’re always together,” Mrs. Flora said fondly.

Over the years, Flora has been a class sponsor four times, has been on five senior trips, and has spoken at two graduations. Throughout that time she has made countless memories. One of her favorites was with the class of 1995. The class was at His Hill and the students and Flora were canoeing in the river. One student was dared to flip the boat Flora was in. Everyone thought he didn’t have the guts to do it… but he did. Then there was that trip to Panama City, Florida, with the class of 2009. Flora volunteered to be the sponsor who would stay up with the kids and ended up spending half the night playing card games. Of course, some of the most memorable for the classes was when Flora took her migraine medicine at school. Those days were by far some of the most memorable of sophomore year. To the class of 2004 she talked about birds, to the class of 2007 she talked about shoes and white socks, and to the class of 2010, well, she was all over the board.

Flora’s last year is rapidly coming to an end, something that she chose with difficulty. “To have been here so long and now to not be here is emotional. It’s very hard,” Flora admitted. However, the choice she made over teaching makes it feel worth it –being a grandma. Flora has six grandchildren, a number that’s already increasing this summer, and she wants to be involved. “I don’t want to start doing stuff when I’m ancient,” Flora laughed. “There are tears over this chapter being over, but I’m excited to see what God has.” Flora hopes to be able to substitute next year, but more than that she wants to keep up the relationships with the students via Facebook and such. Flora related, “The relationships here are what I’m going to miss the most.”