Meneley playground aide retires

Fifty-four-year-old Diana Hermann, a.k.a. Princess, is leaving Meneley Elementary School after 16 years working as a playground aide and teacher's aide.

"I will miss the kids, the teachers and my coworkers," Hermann said. "It was a tough decision to make, but it's just time for me to move on."

Hermann said kids started calling her Princess when she first started at the school in 1992.

"I don't know where they got the name, but John Soderman, who was principal at the time, started using it," she said.

Hermann said she's seen kindergartners grow up and graduate high school.

"My friend's son just graduated," she said, "And I remember when they first dropped him off at Meneley for kindergarten. He was crying and I went out to comfort him."

Hermann's daughter, Carrie Hermann, said her mother has always had a way with kids.

"You can tell in her face when she is at the school that she has a special bond with the kids," she said.

Meneley Principal Paula Zona agreed.

"I've only been here a year, but I have seen how professional Diana is," Zona said. "She knows how to take care of kids; she is always fair and firm."

On June 5, Hermann, like a true princess, paraded out of the school parking lot in a convertible, sporting a crown and wand.

"Kids came up and hugged me and started crying, and I started crying," she said. "But they were happy cries."

Hermann and her husband have purchased five acres along the Salmon River in Idaho.

"We are not going to live there permanently; it's more of a retirement getaway," she said. "My husband has taught me how to fly-fish, and the fishing is great up there."