After more than a decade as principal of Halethorpe Elementary School, Jill Bordenick will leave the school this summer for a position in the Baltimore County school system's human resources division.

Bordenick's replacement could be announced as early as May 19, when the county school board holds its next meeting.

Bordenick, who came to Halethorpe Elementary as an assistant principal in 1996 and became the school's principal two years later, said she will start July 1 as the system's personnel officer in charge of special education teacher placement.

In her new job, Bordenick will be recruiting, interviewing and offering contracts to special education teachers from around the country to fill county positions, she said.

The job, held by Joyce Reier until she retired, was one Bordenick said she "could not pass up."

"It fits my background so well," said Bordenick, 55, whose history in special education dates back to her 1975 graduation from the University of Maryland, College Park, as an elementary and special education major.

Bordenick received a master's degree in special education, specializing in learning disabilities, from Loyola College in 1980, has years of experience as a special education teacher and served as chairwoman of the special education departments at Overlea High School from 1989 to 1992 and at Pikesville Middle School from 1992 to 1994.

From 1994 and to 1996, when she started at Halethorpe, Bordenick was an assistant principal at the Ridge Ruxton School and the Maiden Choice School.

Her renewed focus on special education and starting a "new chapter" in her life is exciting, she said.

Still, the thought of leaving Halethorpe brings Bordenick to tears.

"My life has really centered around the school and the community," she said.

Being principal "is not a 9-to-5 job," said Bordenick, who lives in Pikesville with her husband, Roy.

"It's a job that carries over many nights, weekends, vacations. It's a job where I feel so responsible for the safety of the kids and their education. I feel so responsible for decisions that affect them for the rest of their lives in some ways.

"So leaving is definitely going to be hard."

Many longtime colleagues at Halethorpe Elementary expressed mixed emotions at Bordenick's departure.

"We're happy for her that she's at a place in her life that she's ready to make a change and grow," said Kelly O'Connell, who has taught first and second grade at the school since 2002 and who has been studying to become a school administrator at Towson University under Bordenick's guidance. "But at the same time, she will definitely be missed by the teachers and the students."

Many teachers at the school credit Bordenick with establishing a strong sense of community that, along with her own tenure at the school, encouraged teachers to stay.

"She's very, very supportive of her staff on a personal level, and I think that's why there is very little turnover at the school," said Carol Baker, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the school for 20 years.

Teachers laughed when they recalled the diminutive Bordenick arriving for her first day as principal wearing a shirt that said, "I may be little, but I'm the boss."

She is tough but not intimidating, and they welcomed her frequent visits to their classrooms, they said.

They said Bordenick is a poet who would writes rhymes for special occasions and who loves making the school's announcements on the speaker system.

Most of all, they said, Bordenick is extremely supportive of her staff members on a personal level.

"She's really taken me under her wing," said Leanne Chace, a special education and intermediate inclusion teacher at the school for four years. "She was there for whatever I needed, and not just in teaching. She cares about your personal life."

Ginny Buckingham, a first-grade teacher at the school for 20 years, said Bordenick was instrumental in establishing the "Halethorpe Code," which teaches children life values such as respect and responsibility.

"She cares about the kids being good citizens," Buckingham said.

Bordenick said one of the hardest things about leaving the school will be that she will no longer have direct, daily contact with students -- which she has had for the last 30 years in the Baltimore County Public Schools.

O'Connell said her students have expressed similar thoughts about missing Bordenick, who they all know well.

"She knows all of her students' names, every single one of the 400-plus students," O'Connell said.

"She goes out of her way to create a rapport with each and every one of them."

Bordenick said she will also miss the community.

The area, not just the school, has become her second home, she said -- the place where she has witnessed entire families of siblings graduate from the school.

She said she has also gotten to know local grocers and other business owners.

Last week, during a quick stop at a dollar store to pick up some things for a staff appreciation luncheon, she ran into a former parent, a current parent and a former student, she said.

When the former student, now 18, told Bordenick her name, "I knew exactly who she was," Bordenick said.

Bordenick -- who has two grown children -- said she started as principal at Halethorpe with the desire to make the school known for its strong educational reputation.

She leaves having accomplished that, she said.

"Our school has always been the center of our community.

"But I wanted our school to have a reputation that attracted families that thought education was the most important thing that they could do for their children," she said.

"And I think we've done that. I think we go the extra mile."

The school is hosting a community party for Bordenick May 31 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Guests are asked to call the school at 410-887- 7407 to R.S.V.P.

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