Sandra Grenell must have really enjoyed her job to stay there for 22 years.

The principal of Blooming Prairie Elementary School, a fixture in the Blooming Prairie community, recently announced her retirement at the end of the school year. After a 39-year career, 22 of them spent at BP, Grenell is moving on to bigger goals.

“I had planned on this year several years ago, and so I just reached that goal,” Grenell said. “I have the opportunity to retire at this time … everything fell into place.”

There’s two reasons why Grenell wanted to retire. At 61 years old, she wants to be a stay-at-home mother of her adopted son, who turns three soon. Grenell also hopes to spend her retirement on a variety or projects, like finishing up her doctoral degree in education administration as well as working on education consulting projects.

“I went into administration because I wanted to be able to impact and influence children’s lives as much as possible,” Grenell said.

Grenell’s had far too many memories as principal to know which ones are her favorites, but she’s lately enjoyed seeing students that look pretty familiar.

“What’s really fun right now is that I’m now the principal of children whose parents were children,” she said. “That makes you feel old.”

Another memorable experience was helming the school’s remodeling and reconstruction in 1995. She remembers finding proper classroom space for all teachers after one of the school buildings, which was built in the 1920s, was demolished and the other building, from the 1960s, was partially closed for construction.

“There’re so many different aspects of it that you wouldn’t even imagine,” Grenell said.

Yet Grenell still feels a calling to help children learn, something she’s always felt from the time she was a little girl to her first job teaching in Lanesboro, then Wykoff, her job as principal in Lewiston-Altura and through her tenure at BP.

“Even though I look forward to my retirement, this has been my life and I will miss it very much,” Grenell said.