50 Years & Counting Education support professional Deb Bertsch celebrates a half-century on the job By Tom Gerhardt, NDU Communications
Deb Bertsch grew up in Warwick, graduated from high school there and eventually landed a job as an education support professional there, too. This year, she’s celebrating a milestone. Let’s just say when she started as an ESP, gas was around 40 cents per gallon, and the average cost of a new home was just over $25,000. “I find it hard to believe it’s been 50 years because my heart and my mind tell me I’m young and, of course, it’s the body in the mirror that will tell you different,” Bertsch said. You read that correctly: Fifty years. Deb Bertsch has spent her entire career at Warwick School as an ESP and is a longtime member of the Warwick Education Association and North Dakota United. 14
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Former student Eric Rogness graduated from Warwick 30 years ago. Today, Rogness is also an educator. He teaches Social Sciences at Cankdeska Cikana Community College at Fort Totten. “I got to thinking about that,” he said. “She was here 20-some years before I started seventh grade. I was thinking that’s pretty amazing.” Today the two are walking the halls reminiscing. They come across Deb’s photo — class of ’69. “We keep in close contact, (the) class of ’69,” Bertsch said. “We do a lot of things; our friendship is just a treasure.” In the hall they find Eric’s mom’s class photo from ’71. And his senior class — he points out his mullet is making a comeback.
