McBride: Watching Kids Grow Up Has Been Rewarding

Students in the halls of Jefferson Township High School have had to get used to not seeing a face they’d seen there for years—that being Frank McBride, the school’s long-time hall monitor. McBride retired at the end of last school year.

He was able to laugh about his job a lot, as he would often see students or parents not necessarily at their best.

For example, McBride would start every morning out in front of the school, directing traffic when parents were dropping their kids off at school.

“I would be the first one that unhappy parents would see, because they would be dropping off their kids who may have missed the bus or were running late. All the parents could think about was getting the kid to school. They weren’t thinking about all the other kids crossing the parking lot, and the possible danger. I was there to remind them of that.”

The balance of McBride’s day was spent monitoring the halls, for the most part watching out for kids doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing.

“I would often have to go into the boys’ bathrooms and check for kids smoking,” he said. “Sometimes the girls would come and tell me that a bathroom smelled like smoke, and I would get a female teacher to go and deal with that.”

McBride said he also spent a lot of time in the cafeteria during lunch periods, giving him a chance to get to know the kids. That led to him being asked to participate in many extracurricular activities.

“I played Santa a couple of times, and I was always a judge at the Jefferson Idol contest,” he said. “I also volunteered myself for a ‘kiss the pig’ contest they had once.”

McBride said he’d miss watching the kids grow up.

“While most of the girls come in already looking like young women, the boys would come in looking like little boys. Then, by the time they’re seniors, the boys have caught up to the girls. It was rewarding to watch that evolution.”

McBride and his wife planned to move back to West Virginia, where much of his wife’s family resides. He hoped to be able to spend more time with his family.

McBride is a father of four: Tim, a police sergeant in Jefferson, Sean of Marietta, Ga., Julie of East Windsor, NJ and Megan of Pennsylvania. He also has seven grandchildren.