Schools

Longfellow Principal Honored for 15 Years of Service

Debra Serbin, who is retiring at the end of the school year, was greeted Monday by current and former Longfellow families.

Current and former students gathered Monday night at to honor retiring principal Debra Serbin.

Serbin, who has worked in District 21 since 1986, has served as the school’s principal for 15 years. Longfellow students and parents, some bearing flowers and gifts, waited in line to embrace Serbin and share memories.

Jeff Zabrin, now a senior at , said Monday was the first time he’d been back to Longfellow since he graduated from the fifth grade in 2004.

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“Mrs. Serbin is just a good person overall,” he said, explaining why he came back. His favorite Longfellow memory is of the school’s movie nights, when “everyone would get their sleeping bags and popcorn. Mrs. Serbin would be there. It was the best.”

PTO Co-President Debbie Morris said she has had a child at Longfellow for 14 of Serbin’s 15 years at the school.

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“She’s a very good principal. She really loves the kids and she’s a very good child advocate,” Morris said. “She knows every child’s name in the school by Day 2. It’s amazing. She knows them all.”

Serbin said the turnout at the PTO-sponsored celebration overwhelmed her. “I think that every person deserves a moment to be celebrated, and I think I am one of the most fortunate people in the world, to have all these people come back into my life,” she said. “I’m honored and overwhelmed. It’s like, is it real?”

Serbin said her immediate plans include taking a cruise this summer. “Then,” she said, “we’ll see what life brings.”

Rick Herrejon, now the principal at District 21's Frost Elementary School in Mount Prospect, will take the reins at Longfellow on July 1.


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