Jackie Courtright is retiring from teaching English at Ridge View High School. She once taught at Washington High school in Cherokee for 29 years. She took early retirement from there, but missed teaching, so, when she was asked in 2005 to teach half time at Holstein High School, she took it on. She has been teaching a total of 50 plus years.
While being led down to Courtright’s room for this interview, a colleague said in regards to Courtright’s retirement, “She will be greatly missed.”
Tears came to Courtright’s eyes when she heard this, as she said,
Galva-Holstein Elementary performed their Spring Concert on Tuesday, April 25. To begin, Mr. Jonah Kistenmacher directed the 5th Grade Band to play 3 songs: Theme from Symphony No. 9, Indigo Rock, and Shine. It was a pleasant performance, for sure.
For the rest of the evening, Ms. Amanda Kinney directed her music class through many cultures:
Patricia Peck has been the administrator for Odebolt Specialty Care since February of this year. Her roots are in a farming community in Nebraska. Peck currently lives in Sioux City and travels back and forth to our little town of Odebolt every day. She started out her career in this field in her twenties as a CNA. She went back to school when she was 31 getting her Associates Degree in Healthcare Administration at Iowa Lakes Community College. She has received her Bachelors in Psychology and Human Services.
Nathan Arbegast didn’t study hospitality sciences at Iowa State, or attend the Tippie School of Business in Iowa City or even get an AA from Iowa Lakes Community College in Hospitality Management for that matter. He didn’t take the approach local magnate Charles “Chuck” Sick took when building his holdings, nope. Arbegast, an Ida Grove native, took another route. He got into trouble, a lot of trouble, including stints in jail and prison.
Mr. Matt Alexander came to OABCIG as our superintendent 5 years ago. Prior to that, he was in the city of Atlantic for 20 plus years. He started off there as an accountant / CPA. He realized that is not what he wanted to do the rest of his life. Alexander moved on to a teaching degree, which led him to teach Social Studies and Math, then on to a Elementary Principal and Curriculum Director, and then to a HS Assistant Principal and Activities Director. Alexander knew he wanted to be a superintendent, so when the position in his hometown of Ida Grove came up, he automatically applied.
Ridge View high school social studies instructor Dale Tokheim has influenced many young people, both through his teaching and his coaching duties. Tokheim is in his eighth year teaching high school social studies at Holstein. He taught middle school social studies for 21 years at Schaller-Crestland and Ridge View. Tokheim has also coached a variety of sports at both schools. He discussed some of his coaching experience.
Jacob Welper is the Band Director for the High School and 5th grade at OABCIG. This is his fourth year here at OABCIG. He is from Clear Lake and went to college at Iowa State. A band instructor at Iowa State was his mentor who was also Director for the honor bands put together recently at OABCIG. This event brought students from several different schools together who were the best of the best.
Carol Sadler teaches Life Sciences at OABCIG High School. Sadler will be retiring this year. She has had a great career at this school for 34 years. She is known in this community as a great contributor to the community, being the stepping stone for science careers for many of her students. She loves best to teach the advanced sciences classes where she knows her students are using these classes for a career later on in the science field.
Kari Hadden teaches Business and School-to-Career (Internship) at OABCIG High School. This is her ninth year at OABCIG, but 39 total years of teaching. She started out teaching in Scranton, then Carol Kuemper, then Galva-Holstein, then Western Iowa Tech and now here in Ida Grove. She will be retiring this year.
When asked what her challenges have been, Hadden said,
