By Nate Dornfeld
Mary June Champagney, Branford High School’s only finance and business teacher, recently decided that the 2022-2023 school year will be her last year of teaching. She teaches personal finance, business and entrepreneurship.
Champagney lives in Manchester and you can see her pasion for her job by waking up everyday at 5 a.m. in order to get to BHS on time. She started her 28-year teaching career at Bolton High School after receiving an associate degree to be an executive secretary and then transferred to CCSU and majored in Business Education.
After 3 years at Bolton, she went into the business world she worked as Office Manager, Marketing Specialist, Clerical Training Program Director, Career Placement at a proprietary business school and an adjunct teacher.
She then went back to CCSU and received her masters degree in Remedial Reading. After 17 years she returned to the classroom at Windsor Locks High School and then Manchester High School as a career liaison.
She also taught at Hartford Public High School where she also coached varsity softball. She taught at East Hartford before starting at Branford High School in the 2017-18 school year.
Champagney has a passion for the real life skills she teaches that a lot of schools still don’t offer. “Financial Literacy is an important part of avoiding financial mistakes and planning for a strong, secure financial future,” she said.
She started in the a wing but as her classes got more and more full she got moved to a bigger classroom in the E wing, which is a in the vault.
When Mary is not teaching she is keeping herself bussy with being a driving instructor and a volleyball referee and plans to continue being busy over retirement. She is looking forward to being able to play golf, go to the beach and spend time with her 3 grandchildren. She is also happy about not having to drive 100 miles round trip to school.
“I will definitely miss my students and the teachers that I’ve connected with during my tenure. Especially my department peers: Mindy [Baker], Erica [O’Brien], John [Limone] and Paul [Sarazin].”
Editor's Note: This is part of a series of articles about teachers who are retiring from BHS this school year.
