Jane Szerba - New to Chets!

Jane Szerba will be joining Chets Creek this coming school year as a 5th Grade ELA teacher. She has taught 2nd and 3rd grade for the past two years. Prior to her full time teaching position, Jane was a safety net provider for three years. Since 1996 she has been involved with her children’s schools in many different capacities. Jane feels extremely privileged to become a member of Chets Creek Elementary.

Jane grew up in Reading Pennsylvania and graduated from Kutztown University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. In 1988 she married her high school sweetheart, Jim, at the United States Naval Academy. Jim and Jane headed south to Pensacola for Jim’s first naval assignment, Navy Flight School. After several years of deployments and military moves up and down the east coast, the Szerba’s settled in Jacksonville. Jim has served in the Navy for over 22 years and has been blessed to be stationed here at Mayport for the past several years.

Jane and Jim have three daughters. Margaret is currently a sophomore at the University of North Florida, Ashley is a senior at Fletcher High School, and their youngest daughter is a freshman, also at Fletcher High School. Over the course of her daughter’s lives, Jane has enjoyed watching her daughters grow and mature. She especially has enjoyed their swimming and watching them play Florida’s newest sport, girl’s lacrosse.

In her spare time Jane enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and visiting her family up north. Jane has always been involved with swimming and currently teaches swimming lessons to the neighborhood children during the summer. She receives immense satisfaction when a four year old child realizes that she can swim. Jane has also been a Pace Leader for the Chicago Marathon. You may ask, “What is a Pace Leader?” A Pace Leader is a designated runner that guarantees to finish the marathon (26.2 miles) in a specific pace. For example, if you want to finish the marathon in 4 hours and 30 minutes you would sign up to run with the 4:30 pace team. The pace leader will run a steady pace for the entire race and finish within a minute of that designated pace. She mentioned that it is a very rewarding and an emotional job, especially to help someone complete their first marathon. Jane truly enjoyed this experience from 2004-2007 and hopes to get back in shape sometime soon!

Jane is enthusiastic about the 2009-2010 school year. She is looking forward to forming new relationships, working with a talented team of teachers, and also meeting the amazing students at Chets Creek. What a blessing to have Jane joining our Chets Creek family!