Photos of students dot the desk and walls of Beth Sabo’s office, and there’s a basket full of cards and thank-you notes she’s collected over the years.

“I’m a bit of a pack rat,” she says with a smile. “When I leave, though, the photos on the wall stay, because that’s our history.”

The woman who first walked into Washington Middle School as a teacher at age 21 and later came back as principal will walk out June 30 for the last time.

Sabo retires this year after 37 years in the district, 24 of them at Washington.

Sabo is credited by teachers, parents and administrators for tirelessly working to turn around Washington Middle School’s troubled reputation of poor performance and discipline problems and creating one-of-a-kind programs.

Despite the fact that Washington is a Title I school with a high level of poverty, it met all Adequate Yearly Progress goals in reading and math for all nationalities and categories. And discipline, considered a big problem before Sabo’s arrival as principal, has largely been brought under control.

“She’s a great woman,” said Diane Kastelic, library media consultant for the district who worked at Washington from 2002 to 2008. “I wanted to go there because of Beth. She was a strong leader and very passionate about technology.

“I remember when I was first hired she told me within five years, every child in the building would have a laptop, and at that time, I thought she was absolutely crazy,” Kastelic added. “The concept was so foreign, but she got the funds and she pieced it together.”

The one-to-one Apple computer program allows each student to have his or her own laptop computer throughout the year. Eighth-graders this year have had them for all three years at Washington.

Sabo started as a teacher in 1972 and left in 1986 to become a math resource teacher at Lincoln Elementary before becoming the principal of Jefferson Elementary in 1988. She became a math and science coordinator for the district from 1996 to 1998, before spending a year as the Strange Elementary School principal. She finally returned to her roots as Washington’s principal in 2000.

Those who know her best said the biggest thing Sabo did was relentlessly reach out to her students and work with her staff.

“Beth shows respect to her teachers and they in turn respect her,” said Mary Moreno, Washington’s dean of students. “I think we see a lot of the things she does for kids. She’s into it for the students, and it rubs off on everyone else because we see her working so hard, and we are willing to go above and beyond. She is one of the few who is so dedicated.”

To hear Sabo tell it, it’s the teachers, counselors and secretaries who deserve credit.

She mentioned special education teachers who took on an additional math class, and staff members who volunteer to come in on Saturdays to work with kids as students earn money to go to Washington, D.C.

“We’re able to send every eighth-grade student. They come in on Saturday to work, scrape gum from underneath tables, and we pay them with Title I funds that are used for the trip,” Sabo said.

Sabo cut costs on the Washington, D.C., trips by foregoing tour companies, with parents and teachers leading students around the capital.

“So many kids learn outside and really need that experience,” Sabo said. “My goal was to make sure it wasn’t a reward for good behavior. It’s an opportunity for all kids to participate in an educational trip. When you spend a night on a bus as an overnight with students, you form a bond.”

She picks up a photo on her desk that was taken about seven years earlier during the D.C. trip.

“This is one of my favorites,” she said. “We go with small groups, and if a child isn’t working out in one group, I get them. This is one of the groups, and we had so much fun that day. We hiked over 10 miles. They were good kids. Sometimes you just need a different approach.”

She pulls out a recent thank you card she received from a parent of a former student who is now a junior in high school. She said her son still wears the T-shirt from the trip and talks about it three years later.

“You made that happen for him and I’m forever grateful,” the mom wrote.

Sabo said it’s a reminder that students are learning, even when you might not think they are.

“So often in education you don’t get tons of praise,” she said. “What that does is remind me that you may not know how you are affecting a child, but something you said makes that difference. You always have to keep that in mind.”