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Schools

Farewell for Frank Bensinger

Elementary school community gathers to wish Forest Edge principal well.

Frank Bensinger doesn’t have time to count his blessings. Not when they keep walking up to him and tapping him on the shoulder.

There’s the young woman who is working on her Ph.D. from Princeton University. “I knew her when she couldn’t speak English, came to us in the third grade,”  says Bensinger, who is retiring next week after 21 years as principal of .

The kindergartners who approach him shyly, to recite in unison: “We’re going to miss you.”

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The mothers and grandmothers who come up with a smile, but dissolve into tears once he gives them a hug.

For everyone at Forest Edge, where hundreds of people turned out last night for a picnic in his honor, Bensinger is the only principal  they have ever known.  Not just for those with current students, but for those with middle school, high school and college students as well.

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The community is happy for him as he moves on to the next stage of his life, says Tara Cranford Teague, president of the Forest Edge PTA. But it’s hard to imagine school without him.

“My kids adore him,” Cranford Teague says. “When they get candy for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, they always save a piece for Mr. Bensinger.”

Bensinger, 69, is already past traditional retirement age. Twenty-one years is a very long time to be principal at one elementary school – Stuart Gibson, who is also retiring this year after 16 years as Hunter Mill District representative on the Fairfax County School Board, says Bensinger is the only principal who stayed in place throughout his tenure.

Some health concerns finally convinced him that he should step down after this year, Bensinger says. But like his community, he’s just not sure how he is going to handle it.

“Kids keep you young,’’ he says. “They keep you vibrant. When you say something, it better be the right thing, because they are going to question you.’’

Forest Edge is a highly diverse school. It has students from all over the world, so a vibrant English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program is a given. It is also a center for the Advanced Academics program. It offers special education services like all county schools, but is also preparing to be a center for students with autism in the fall. Bensinger sums it all up in one word: “Perfect.”

“This was the right school for me,” he says. “I had taught in inner-city schools in Wilmington DE. When I came to the county, I was a GT [gifted and talented, now known as Advanced Academics] teacher at Hutchison Elementary. My wife taught ESOL. All of my background came together right here.”

One of Bensinger’s last, and most important duties, happens tomorrow. Publicly, he will introduce his successor to staff, students and parents. Privately, he will sit down with the new principal and try to find the right words to describe Forest Edge and what it is like to lead the school.

“What I value most is the inclusion. We are one school,” he says. “That will be part of my job, to convey the incredible sense of community.”

 

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