LEWISTON – In the 1970s, Marsha Auster rarely saw 15-year-olds who didn’t want to be in school.

Most of them had already dropped out.

Back then, many Lewiston graduates didn’t go on to college. Teenage pregnancy was at a high. School violence was limited largely to fistfights.

In her nine years as a Lewiston elementary teacher and 20 years as a guidance counselor, Auster has seen the changes in schools firsthand.

Some of it good. Some of it bad.

Now, as she retires, Auster has come to a conclusion: Education is more important than ever.

Auster grew up in New York City and moved to Maine after her husband left the military. She began teaching third grade at Jordan School in Lewiston, but she soon realized it was the one-on-one work that she loved.

She earned a master’s degree in guidance counseling, and in 1985 she moved into a counselor’s office at Lewiston Middle School.

“The first meeting was this mother sitting there cursing. And she was saying, I can’t understand it. My daughter uses foul language all the time,'” Auster said.

From fists to guns

As a middle school guidance counselor, Auster dealt with a range of problems, from a girl’s stained blouse to teenage pregnancy. But often students came to her when they were bullied, dealing with family problems or having trouble in school.

On some home visits, she was struck by the extreme poverty she found.

“How could they think of doing homework?” she said. “They’re wondering where their next meal is coming from.”

Young teens could drop out of school with little problem, she said. Troubled students often didn’t make it through high school.

Over the years, Lewiston and other school systems started better special education programs, alternative schools and school-to-work programs. In the 1980s and 90s, as teenage pregnancy became a public issue, schools set up special day-care centers for young parents. They kept kids in school.

In Lewiston, the number of dropouts was cut in half between 1988 and 2002. It went from 116 to 55, according to the Department of Education’s Web site.

But more troubled and disengaged teens in school meant more kids acting up in class.

Over the years, assistant principals have become disciplinarians first, administrators second, she said. Teachers have found it more and more difficult to teach.

But while behavioral problems have increased, she said, violence hasn’t. School violence has changed in a different way. Thirty years ago, students got into fistfights. Sometimes a teenager brandished a knife. Now fists and knives have been replaced by guns.

“What’s different is the weapons are better,” Auster said.

Retirement

In 2000, Auster became the guidance director at Lewiston High School.

She was there when the 1,400-student school dealt with dismal college attendance rates and an influx of Somali students. She was there when federal regulations grew and the state determined that Lewiston High failed to meet certain standards.

Tensions ran high sometimes, she said, but the school and its students always persevered.

“I think it’s a great school,” she said. “It’s a really great school.”

Auster, 55, decided this past spring that it was time for her to retire. She wanted time to visit her first grandchild and to promote BukRaps, a backpack alternative she created with a friend several years ago.

But she’s already thinking about her next job. Not as a teacher. And not as a full-time counselor. But something in education.

After 30 years, she’s not sure she can stay away.

“The best part was when a kid says, Thank you. You helped me.'” Auster said. “It’s hard to let go of that.”