Who comes to mind for you when choosing a teacher you’re the most grateful for? Personally the first person I thought of was Ms.Perrotte, an English teacher at Manchester High School. She is such an amazing teacher and person, and I could not imagine this school without her.

Ms.Perrotte has been an english teacher at MHS for 11 years which means she’s had a lot of personal experiences in the building. She was teaching here through having her two children. She even named her son Grant while she was reading an essay a student had written. He was trying to explain how his skin was different. By the time she finished reading his essay, she just started sobbing because of the message behind it. The boy who wrote the essay’s name was Grant, and that is how she named her son. “I just knew when I finished reading his essay that Grant was meant to be my son’s name too.” Perrotte said. 

This heartfelt story is one of the many reasons that Ms.Perrotte has never wanted to leave MHS. “I have so many memories that are so important to me in this building; it would be very hard for me to leave this school.” Perrotte explained. She told me about how covid was really hard for her and made her consider teaching online classes for a little while because it would give her more time with her family.  Overall, she chose that in person teaching was best for her. She told me about how teaching for her was more of a calling rather than a job. She loves being in her classroom and connecting with her students. She said the main reason she feels this way is because school was her safe space growing up, and her teachers were always more like her best friends. She also explained that her family did not have very much money growing up and her childhood at times was hard because of it. She recalls Christmases when she didn’t get what most people would consider “normal” Christmas presents.  

This being part of her childhood led her to want to be part of the biggest turkey contest when Mrs.Hardison who started the fundraiser was still running it. Mrs. Hardison eventually retired, and now Ms.Perrotte runs the entire competition. When Ms.Perrotte was given the opportunity to run the competition, she made it into what it is today. She has made the competition a much bigger deal than it used to be, and this year our school raised over $25,000. On top of that, she also co-sponsored NEHS for 3 years. When asked to take over NEHS, she was reluctant to accept the offer because she has a lot on her plate as it is, with running the biggest turkey and having two children at home she has a lot to handle. Though as we all know, that has never and probably will never stop her from tackling any challenging task. 

With all of the things Ms.Perrotte does for us and our school, I think she is the teacher everyone should be the most grateful for. She truly cares about our Lancer family and makes a huge effort to make sure that every MHS student is taken care of. Thank you for all you do for us Mr.Perrotte.