Area schools ready to welcome students
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FAIRMONT-- Starting Monday, more than a hundred students that attend parochial schools in the county will have their first day back at school. Several of these schools have a few new offerings including new teachers, new flooring and new programs.
Brian Kube, principal of St. Paul Lutheran School in Fairmont, shared that they have a new 7th and 8th grade teacher this year: Janna Holmen, wife of the the newest pastor, Michael Holmen.
While there are no other new teachers this year, Kim Koppen will be starting her second year as the school's art teacher.
Kube shared that all of the teachers have new smart boards in their classrooms. Also new this year is a gaga pit which will be used at recess time and for gym classes.
"Our theme this year is connected. Connected in God, connecting with students, connecting with our community. That's the theme we're using," Kube said.
At St. Paul Lutheran School in Truman, office staff member, Cindi Riewe, shared that they're offering both full-day and half-day preschool for the first time this school year on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Eight students are signed up for this.
"We're also offering Latin to grades 3 through 8. Last year it was just 3 and 4 but now it's 3 to 8. Pastor Timothy Chase teaches that," Riewe said.
She said that over the summer the school also had a new gym floor put in, which will be used for the first time starting this next week.
Fairmont Christian School continues to grow. The school, housed inside Bethel Evangelical Free Church, started in 2017 with just 10 students between kindergarten and 1st grade. This year, the school has 50 students enrolled and will be offering a 6th grade class for the first time.
Kim Niestrath, the school's administrator, said that last year they added two new teachers, BJ Kolbe and Terri Linse, and will have a few combined classes. This year they added Linette Sunblad as an academic support person.
"We have five full-time classroom teachers and some support staff," Niestrath said.
In addition to the new grade level and some new staff members, Niestrath said this year they've added STEM classes.
"We try each year to add a new special. Last year it was art and this year it's STEM. That's in addition to our Spanish, music and P.E. classes," Niestrath said.
She said this year Fairmont Christian School will join other local parochial schools, St.
Paul Lutheran and St. John Vianney, to take part in the annual marathon for non-public education, which will be held on Oct. 6.
Before that, on Sept. 17, the school's Harvest Hustle 5K will happen. The event serves as a fundraiser for the school.
At St. John Vianney in Fairmont, some students will be greeted by a new teacher this year. Principal Sarah Striemer said they've replaced two of the three teachers needed for this school year.
"I'm still looking for one 4th grade teacher but we've hired two really great teachers to fill 1st and 5th grade," Striemer said.
Jenna Lee Gustfason, an alumni of SJV, will be teaching 1st grade this school year. This will be her first year teaching.
"She's working closely with our past 1st grade teacher, Mary Betts, who will serve as her mentor," Striemer said.
The school's new 5th grade teacher, Chris Sitzmann, is coming from La Mars, Iowa. Striemer said she's coming from another Catholic school and was just looking to relocate.
As for new additions to the school building itself, Striemer said the whole building was tuck-pointed over the summer, which will help increase the longevity of the building.
"Around all of windows, there were spaces that had really faded so we had them all repainted to match the trim around our roof. It gave the building a nice facelift," Striemer said.
Finally, both the church and school parking lot were resurfaced over the summer and some plumbing upgrades were made to the bathrooms.
Striemer said that the majority of the projects were paid for by fundraising efforts that have taken place over the past couple of years, including the annual dinner dance, which is held at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
Martin Luther High School in Northrop also fundraised and got a brand new parking lot put in ahead of the new school year. For the past 40 years of the school's existence, it had had a gravel parking lot. The high school students will be able to park on a cement lot this school year.
"We have an all-school reunion on Sept. 2, which will be held on the parking lot," said principal Paul Steinhaus.
The reunion is part of the school's 40th anniversary celebration.
Prior to last school year, the high school was for those in grades 9 through 12, but this
will be just the second year that MLHS has offered 7th and 8th grade.
"Last year went surprisingly smooth. There were some concerns–anything new has a learning curve–but it was kind of like they had always been in the building," said Steinhaus.
He said this was in part due to the capabilities of the 7th and 8th grade teacher, Teresa Kiehl, who joined them last school year.
"We just met with staff at St. James Lutheran to do a year review," Steinhaus said.
St. James Lutheran, which is also located in Northrop just a short distance from MLHS, has long been a Pre-K through 8th grade school, but when MLHS started offering 7th and 8th grade last year, St. James dropped down through 6th grade.
"We met with Pastor Henry and staff at St. James and at the end of the discussion, the summary was that they missed the older students... but at the same time, they said they wouldn't change a thing," Steinhaus said.
Ultimately no changes were suggested to be made going into the second year of 7th and 8th grade. While the natural assumption is that students will bridge from St. James Lutheran to MLHS, Steinhaus said they were surprised by the demographics.
"This conversation of junior high has been a long-time conversation that finally materialized in a small step last year. We found as an end result, that we've brought more students into the system. More students have come from outside of the system to join our 7th and 8th grade," Steinhaus said.
This school year, there will be about 10 7th and 8th grade students. Only one of them is coming from St. James Lutheran, one is coming from Lakefield, another is coming from homeschool and a few are coming from other public schools in Martin County.
In addition to the new grade levels, Steinhaus said that by adding Kiehl to their staff, they're able to offer a new PSEO History class, which Kiehl will teach this year.
"That's in addition to three different PSEO English classes that Becky Oerman teachers," Steinhaus said.
While it won't be offered this school year, Steinhaus said they're already working on incorporating more of a project-based classroom approach to their science electives.
"They'll have a different emphasis, there could be an ag-emphasis and they can use the greenhouse and the aquaponics. We're looking at adding some project-based electives next year, but all of the ground work will go into it this year," Steinhaus said.