RUMFORD — Longtime special education teacher Vicki Broomhall Amoroso has decided it’s time to retire and get on with more of her many interests.

Amoroso, 64, a Rumford native, began her 38-year career teaching for a year in Bangor before coming to Rumford.

“I love Maine and this part of the state,” she said. Her family members are longtime Rumford residents, and many of her friends live here.

Her other “family,” the staff at Rumford Elementary School, is something she will dearly miss, she said.

“It’s an unbelievable family atmosphere. The staff supports each other, the parents and the students, working with other special education teachers,” she said.

She has taught at Rumford Elementary for the past 27 years.

Her first day on the job at the then-middle school, teachers were on strike. That is most likely why she became so deeply involved in the Maine Education Association and union activities.

She also likes the many resources that the professional organization provides. She plans to continue that involvement after retirement.

“The MEA is a big part of who I am,” she said. “They are out there to protect our interests.”

Amoroso began her special education career on the cusp of special education in the late 1970s. She has focused mainly on learning disabilities.

“I love teaching reading and watching kids learn to read, to see them come in without reading skills and gain confidence and learn that they can be a reader,” she said. “I love watching them grow.”

Among her plans for retirement are trips to the Midwest and Finland to get to know her Finnish family. While she is in Finland, she will attend the World Cup Ice Hockey Championships. Her niece, Reagan Carey, is director of the U.S. Women’s Olympic ice hockey team.

She also plans to visit many places in Maine she has never seen, and become a minimalist. Plans are to ruthlessly clean out her house, room by room. She may also substitute from time to time, and volunteer at the Rumford Information Center.

Amoroso graduated from Stephens High School and the University of New Hampshire, and completed several courses at the University of Maine and the University of Maine at Farmington. She is the mother of two sons.

Now is the time to retire, she said.

“I’m turning 65, I’m not a fan of excessive testing, and I’m opposed to some of the things currently in education,” she said.

And she won’t have to get up at 5:30 a.m. She’s also tired of the paperwork that must be completed for special education children.

“I’ll be crying when I leave. I know it will be an emotional time,” she said.