At the end of the spring 2025 semester, 74 faculty and staff members will retire from El Camino College, with their final date of employment being Monday, June 30.
Thirteen others retired at the end of the fall 2024 semester. Their final date of employment was Monday, December 30, 2024.
According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Data Mart, the El Camino Community College District had 1,451 employees as of fall 2024, and by the end of June, about 6% of them will have retired.
Retiring employees are participating in the recently-offered supplemental retirement plan, also known as a “golden handshake,” which reduces costs for the college while providing employees with benefits.
This program was last offered in 2017, when 76 employees had retired, according to a July 2024 presentation to the ECC Board of Trustees.
Staff members who retire from the campus may leave, but their contributions to the school will not be forgotten.
Diana Crossman, 39 years at ECC
Diana Crossman is one of three faculty members retiring from the Behavioral and Social Sciences Division at El Camino. She has been a speech instructor at ECC since September 1986.
Crossman was a part-time forensics, or competitive speech, coach at California State University, Sacramento and Sacramento City College, when she was introduced to ECC’s successful speech program.
The person in charge of the speech communication department in Sacramento dropped off a flyer to Crossman, encouraging her to make the move.
“I thought, Los Angeles. That would be fun, so I did,” Crossman said.
She started as the director of the competitive speech team for seven years, until her husband professor Mark Crossman, who has been working at ECC since 1988, joined as director and she became assistant director.
Since then, she has been a professor of speech classes.
One thing that she emphasized is for professors and students to be more willing to engage in in-person classes.
She said that there were a lot more in-person classes when she started out and that there are many benefits to this kind of schedule.
“The team was really bubbly, energetic and fun. And honestly, it was better in a lot of ways because there weren’t online classes and everybody knew each other. And it did seem like more of a community,” Diana Crossman said.
She enjoyed the classes she took as a student, like English and film, and plans on taking more after retirement. She also has trips planned to places like Japan and insists she will remain active once she departs from ECC.
“I will not be the person that sits on the couch watching TV, I can tell you that,” Diana Crossman said.
Brenda Peterson, 11 years at ECC
There are three employees retiring from the Admissions and Records Division at El Camino.
Brenda Peterson has worked in the Admissions Office at ECC since 2001.
She is an admissions and records specialist and deals with admitting the degrees of students — mainly the certificates — transcripts, grade changes, verifications and the residency of students.
Peterson landed a job at ECC while job-seeking on the internet, after working for an insurance company for 25 years.
She said that the technology is the biggest difference from when she first started at ECC.
“Mostly the technology, because we used to have lines out in the admissions office. Because everything was mostly manual,” Peterson said.
She said her favorite memories while working at ECC were the potlucks and baby showers that the department would plan.
“One year we did a Christmas potluck for a whole week,” Peterson said.
She added that they had a theme with decorations for each meal.
Peterson plans to keep her mind moving after retirement. She would like to get her notary license and take swimming classes at ECC.
“Keep learning, as much as my mind will allow it,” Peterson said.
Donna Pantaleo, 44 years at ECC
Donna Pantaleo has worked at El Camino since 1979 and was hired permanently in 1981.
Her aunt was the supervisor for food services and told her they needed someone to help out.
After working in the cafeteria for many years, the cafeteria closed down and she changed departments. In 1993, she landed a job as an admissions and records technician.
Pantaleo enjoyed the tight knit group while working at ECC.
“You’ve been here for so long, you become like a family. We argue, we have our ups and downs,” Pantaleo said.
She said she plans to keep herself busy after retirement and keep moving.
“Go visit my grandkids and sister, definitely the swim classes,” Pantaleo said.
She described how she feels with her retirement approaching.
“You have a mixed feeling, you’re excited and you’re scared at the same time,” Pantaleo said.
Adriana Denton, 40 years at ECC
Adriana Denton started working permanently at ECC in August 1985. Like Pantaleo, Denton worked in food services for ECC until 1993, then became an admissions and records technician.
She found out about the job through her ex-sister-in-law and decided to apply for a position.
Denton said one of the best things about ECC is seeing the success of the students.
“I get very happy when you see somebody and they did something big. Sometimes they come back and they tell you, and it’s beautiful,” Denton said.
She said some of her favorite memories are those with her coworkers, when she worked in the cafeteria.
“We have fun over here, but it’s an office. In the cafeteria, it was different. We used to laugh and play a lot, and get in trouble,” Denton said
She said they would also go out on Fridays for drinks.
Pantaleo and Denton have a close bond and agreed that they would either do this interview together or not at all.
“We came in together and we are leaving together,” Pantaleo said.
Denton said her goal after retirement is to visit loved ones and travel.
“I want to enjoy my grandkids and spend more time with them, and my mom — my mom is 93 — and travel because my husband, he loves to travel,” Denton said.
Denton also said she wants to stay on vacation for longer periods of time and is relieved to not have to come back for work.
Kim Ashley, 44 years at ECC
Kim Ashley is one of four employees retiring from the Information Technology Services Division at El Camino. She is a user support technician and has worked at ECC since 1981.
She was introduced to ECC through a newspaper job opening. She said that “want ads” were a big deal at the time.
Ashley said her job has changed drastically since her start.
“I didn’t start in this position. Actually, I started on a mainframe, so my job has evolved from mainframe, to server and PC functions now,” Ashley said. “So where we used to have files on reel to reel tapes, now we have them stored in folders and servers.”
Ashley’s roles at ECC have always involved deciding and dealing with different aspects of student data. She said that in her job, you must be adaptive because systems are constantly changing.
She said that technology was very different in her early years at ECC.
“When I started here there was no email, so our interoffice communication was through manila folders. The mail room would come and pick up, if you had some type of mail or memo to get to another office,” Ashley said.
She also said there were less students and staff, and there were a lot of meetings and memos to communicate things.
Ashley said that she plans to travel, spend time with family and enjoy life after retirement. She would like to paint, take exercise classes and partake in different hobbies and social groups. Ashley is also thinking of volunteering and performing one of her talents, mini-golf.
She said that her best memories working at ECC were the parties, potlucks and picnics.
“I was in the party group, but we didn’t need a reason to give a party,” Ashley said.
