This news was made public back in October, but in case you haven’t heard, here is a letter I sent to West Hartford Public School’s Human Resources director last fall:
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October 13, 2025,
I’m writing to inform you of my intention to retire from teaching at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
It’s been an honor to teach in West Hartford Public Schools for the past 27 years. The opportunity to teach nearly 600 students over almost three decades and represent our school district as a former Teacher of the Year was truly a dream come true.
Wolcott School has truly been a second home to me.
It’s where I met my wife and some of the closest, best friends of my life.
It’s where I’ve worked with students and families who have remarkably become some of my closest friends today. I’ve attended the weddings of former students. Officiated the wedding ceremonies of former students. Attended and spoken at their graduations and birthdays. Supported them through struggle and tragedy. Walked golf courses alongside them, attended Patriots games and Broadway shows, and counseled them through heartache.
And they have supported me when I needed help the most. They have stood by me in my darkest hours and championed me when I needed their light most.
Wolcott School is where I’ve carved out a meaningful space in this community, which I take enormous pride in and cherish beyond measure.
I will always think of this school as my home.
I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a little boy, and for a long time, I never thought it would happen. My path to college and eventually my career was more fraught, circuitous, and unorthodox than most. There were moments when becoming a teacher seemed utterly impossible, so the chance to occupy a classroom and love my students has been one of the highlights of my life.
No matter where I am or what I am doing, I will always think of myself as a teacher first.
But I find myself at a point in my life when new opportunities have presented themselves. Writing, consulting, executive coaching, public speaking, and entrepreneurship will all offer me exciting new challenges and frontiers to conquer in the near future.
It’s a bittersweet moment to be sure.
I will certainly be happy to leave certain aspects of teaching behind, but many things, including my love of Wolcott School, the affection and respect I have for my colleagues, and, most of all, the relationships I have with my students and their parents, will be sorely missed.
I’ve watched friends like Sharon Snow, Jeff Michaud, Donna Gosk, Chris Kueffner, and many others navigate their retirements, finding ways to stay connected to children, schools, and colleagues.
I plan to follow their examples and do the same.
I look forward to this final year of teaching and relishing all of the moments that have become the routines of my life for more than a quarter century, one final time.
I’m eternally grateful to Plato Karafelis for hiring me 28 years ago for the teaching position I still hold today. I am also thankful to the many administrators over the years who have supported me, befriended me, and allowed me to flourish within the walls of this school.
West Hartford has been a beautiful place to begin, grow, and end my teaching career.
I can’t imagine a better place to have spent so much of my life.
Warmly,
Matthew Dicks
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I’ll certainly be writing more about this as I get closer to my last day of school, but for now, I’ll say that the decision to retire remains bittersweet.
