By Brett Fisher
A retirement party for Carson High School teacher Penny Reynolds is planned for Sunday at 1 p.m. at Bowers Mansion in Washoe Valley.
The event is open to friends and family, Reynolds said.
“The way I taught, it was not just for the kids, it was for their families,” Reynolds said. “A lot of my old students have got kids now, and they are so excited to bring their kids to come meet me.”
She said more than 200 people have already RSVP’d.
“Bowers Mansion is going to be converged upon Sunday by some 280 people,” Reynolds laughed.
Reynolds, head of the Carson High School culinary program, has taught in the Carson City School District for 31 years. She has been in charge of the school’s culinary arts program since its inception in 1998.
For once, Reynolds said she will let somebody else do the cooking.
Sysco Foods and Bonanza Produce, both suppliers of the CHS culinary arts department for many years, will be providing food for the retirement party, she said.
Reynolds said she has banked a lot of memories teaching young people over the past three decades, and she will miss the privilege of having taught at Carson High School for so many years.
But Reynolds also said she feels it’s time to step away and pursue other opportunities. She decided earlier this spring that 31 years was enough time and the timing for retirement was right.
Under her direction, the CHS culinary arts department went from a new concept to a state championship caliber program that is now ranked among the top 50 nationwide. It is the only high school culinary program in Nevada to achieve this ranking, Reynolds said.
She said 38 students competed in culinary this school year, participating in six different competitions at the regional and state levels.
CHS fielded two teams at the state finals in February, and both placed. One team achieved second and the other earned fourth in the state.
Reynolds said CHS had no qualifiers for national competition this year. But the CHS culinary teams have made it to nationals every other year over the past nine years.
She credits the Carson City community for stepping up to support her students.
“Carson City is such an amazing town,” she said. “They made sure we made it to nationals every single year.”
This is extraordinary, Reynolds said, because the team must fund-raise $11,000 on its own without help from the school district.
Reynolds is a Carson City native, born and raised in the Nevada state capital. She graduated from Carson High School in 1979 before earning her college degree out of state.
She then returned to her hometown and has spent the past 31 years teaching in the schools she once attended as a student.
Reynolds said no matter what else she does or where else she goes in life, Carson City will always be her home town.
