WESTFIELD – Barbara Trant will be retiring at the end of January after 20 years of faithful service to the Westfield School District as founder and organizer of the volunteer organization VIPS, or Volunteers In Public Schools.
“I started at the school department in the ’91-’92 school year and I was selected at that time to start a program to help the schools,” she said. “At the time, I was the chair of a parent committee and a group of us ended up starting the program and it has just grown and grown into the program it is today.”
Trant said that the program was necessitated by budget cuts in the late ’80s.
“They cut all the librarians, aides and services they had and a lot of us as parents felt that we had something to give to help,” she said. “The first thing the program did was to thank the people that had jumped in to help and then we started building on that.”
What started as a small initiative has now ballooned into an endeavor with more than 100 volunteers assisting in classrooms and school offices each week, helping with all manner of work, from library assistance to clerical office work, to helping students learn to read.
A Springfield native and alumnus of then-Western New England College, Trant worked as a branch manager of a local bank before having children and getting involved with the school district as they entered the system.
“I’ll miss the people,” she said. “I like to make connections between people and if there is a problem, we’ll fix it. If a teacher calls and needs help with something, I like to find someone to help or do it myself.”
Trant said she will continue her work as treasurer with the community organization Westfield on Weekends (WOW), and spend time with a new grandchild.
“WOW is at a crossroads and will be changing a lot of the things that it does as the landscape in Westfield is changing,” she said. “I’ve been treasurer for eight years so I’m very involved in the day-to-day with that.”
Trant added she will also be taking a trip to Italy with her husband Tom in the spring with St. Mary’s Church.
“I’m real lucky. Father Brian takes the trip over there every few years so we’re going to fly to Italy over April vacation,” said Trant.
While goodbyes are often bittersweet, Trant maintains that she will remain a viable and active member of the community for years to come.
“It’s been my honor and pleasure to serve the students and staff at Westfield schools and I wish the VIPS program well in the future – that it continues to grow. I will continue to support it, along with the Westfield Foundation for Education,” she said.
Westfield Mayor and School Committee Chair Daniel M. Knapik congratulated Trant on her impending retirement Tuesday, adding that she did a “good job for many years.”
“She took an interesting idea at the time and VIPS is now an integral part of the school administration,” he said.
