Cole Elementary School teachers Linda Piecewicz and Peggy Cook have each taught for more than 30 years, a combined total of 60 years of educating Boxford youngsters.

Sixty years — that's more than 10,000 school days and thousands of students guided, taught and loved.

The two educators, who will retire at the end of this month, were recognized with proclamations, gifts and music at a special schoolwide assembly on June 12.

The entire student body at Cole sat on the floor of the cafeteria last Thursday as Cook and Piecewicz were thanked and recognized by Cole Principal Kathryn Nikas, Superintendent Bernard Creeden, Boxford School Committee and PTO members and state Sen. Bruce Tarr.

Piecewicz, a special education and first-grade teacher, came to Boxford in 1979. Cook, who has taught kindergarten, first-grade and a first- and second-grade mulitage class, started teaching in Boxford in 1977.

The Spofford Pond School sixth-grade jazz band played special music for the occasion, lead by director by Andrea Monty. Cole students were in awe as the sixth-graders jammed to rock and jazz favorites, including "String of Pearls" and "Irreplaceable You."

Several of the jazz band members had been students in Cook and Piecewicz's classes. Some of the former students took the microphone to dedicate the song "You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You" to Cook and "Dreams" to Piecewicz.

Piecewicz and Cook smiled and wiped away tears as the jazz band played the songs dedicated to them.

Tarr, thanking the two teachers, said it was "bittersweet" to see them go, but the Senate and House of Representatives will be "forever grateful" for their service to Massachusetts schools.

"You have planted seeds in each and every one of these children, but also the children that came before them," Tarr said, motioning to the youngsters sitting on the floor.

Creeden thanked both teachers for their years of service and gave them a framed "B" varsity letter (for Boxford, he explained) as a memento. Christina Eckert, president of the Boxford PTO, presented both Cook and Piecewicz with a beautiful planter full of colorful blooms.

Cook ended the celebration with a slideshow of photos she had compiled and set to music. Students and teachers giggled as photos from Spofford and Cook's classrooms from the 1970s flashed on the screen, along with photos of Cook's family — including of when she flew to China to pick up her two adopted daughters — and Cole classrooms and staff over the years.