Retiring Aragon Staff
At the end of this semester, three members of the Aragon staff will be retiring. Barbara Lyons, Eddy Nagar, and Jose Arblzu have provided Aragon with their services for over two decades. Their contributions to the school are immeasurable and they will be greatly missed by the Aragon community.
Barbara Lyons is the financial manager of the school and has worked at Aragon for 24 years. Lyons started working in the copy room when she first came to Aragon. She says, “It worked well because my children were in school and I could spend time with them.” Some time later, Lyons applied for the job of financial manager and has worked there ever since.
She adds, “The best and most fun part of this job is working with the students, and there is never a dull moment. It goes by fast.” Lyons will retire at the end of the semester, but looks forward to retirement. “I’m retiring because I have five grandchildren and I don’t want to miss out with all their activities, because they are getting old too fast.”
Lyons also adds, “My husband and I like to travel too. We go to Las Vegas every March to watch the Western Coastal Conference basketball tournament.” She
continued, “I love traveling. Any chance I get, I will go see anywhere or anybody. I’ve gone to Europe a couple of times, but mainly travel in the U.S.”
Lyons says, “[Aragon] is a wonderful place to be. The staff and students are so caring, fun, and interesting. I really don’t have one favorite thing because each year and each day is fun. There has not been one day that I haven’t enjoyed.”
“I won’t miss the actual paperwork. But doing the work doesn’t seem like work. I’ve just enjoyed the whole experience,” Lyons adds.
Lyons says, “I will miss the people the most. Definitely the people, the relationships with students, and the staff. That’s what I’ll really miss, the daily interaction. I will stay in touch with the people here after I retire.”
Lyons will be greatly missed by the entire Aragon community. She says, “I would like to thank everybody here for letting me be a part of the whole community for all this time. It’s something I will always treasure. I really will miss the friends I made.”
Jose Arblzu is retiring from the maintenance staff. He has been working at Aragon for 22 years. Arblzu says, “We do everything outside and inside. We are like the S.W.A.T. of the school.”
Arblzu reflects, “We will miss the students, the teachers, and the staff. We never have problems with anyone. Everyone is really friendly over here at Aragon. There aren’t problems with the students, and even no graffiti.”
Like Lyons, retirement will provide Arblzu family time. “I have two boys and a daughter and I have to spend time with them. I play soccer with them, go camping, and I love to swim. We go to the river to swim.”
Eddy Nagar will also be retiring from the maintenance staff. After 26 years, he says, “Every moment is my favorite moment here. I am really happy to see all the students. They come in [to Aragon] and are really small, and they go out as adults. That’s the best thing.”
Nagar adds, “We’re happy here. It’s so hard to retire. When you’re working, you keep on working. At the end of the day, you will look forward to tomorrow. But when you retire and wake up in the morning, what can you do?”
Nagar reminisces, but recognizes the need for change. “You have to have a new life, you know, new things. That’s the hard part. You have to adjust again. That will be the second stage of your life.”
After this semester, Nagar will wake up to the “second stage” of his life. “I’ve been [at Aragon] long enough. I’ve been thinking of ‘graduating,’ because everyone graduates, but I’ve never graduated. So this time I will graduate.”
