1868 – First Schoolhouse: confirmation instruction by Pastor John    

            Her and Karl Jochen

 

1886 – First full-time teacher: Emil Meyer

 

1888 – Second classroom added to first school

 

1899 – New schoolhouse on same spot at cost of $4,000: in use for 54 years

 

1903 – Teacherage erected and dedicated at cost of $1,215

 

1927 – Christian Day School closed

 

1941 – Director of Education and Music: Victor J. Schulz, served until retirement in 1971

 

1953 – Centennial Hall: new addition, dedicated on December 13

 

1968 – Reformation Chapel: new addition dedicated

 

1983 – New Lutheran Elementary School: reopening and dedication on August 28 – thirty-three students in remodeled Centennial Hall classrooms – Robert Kugler, principal/teacher of  grades five through eight – Jane Neils, teacher of grades one through four – more property purchased for future expansion

 

1987 – Kindergarten added – teacher, Patricia Nurnberger

 

1989 – Self-supporting Child Care Center: opened in remodeled janitor’s house – Colleen O’Connor, director

 

1994 – $2.5 Million Capital Facilities Project: dedicated on November 20 – old facilities remodeled for various uses and new facilities for classrooms, gymnasium, and kitchen

 

1998 – Preschool added to Child Care Center program

 

2008 – Child Care Center Closed – Preschool program continued as part of Emanuel Lutheran Elementary School
 

 

Emanuel has always been an advocate of Christian education in its many forms. We believe that it begins within our families, as our parents train themselves and their children in the saving truth of our Lord’s Spirit-inspired Word.

 

We also believe that the local congregation must assist our families in the Christian education of their children. This occurs especially through the local church’s worship services and through the other agencies it establishes to help teach its members the Law and Gospel message of the Scriptures.

 

Likewise, we believe that Christian education concludes with the congregation’s whole-hearted support of its still larger Christian family. Our synod enables us to carry out locally our Savior’s commission--that all of us are to educate the nations of the world, including our own. We are to help educate all of them with the same Christian education we have received in our Lord’s grace.

 

Beginning with Emanuel’s birth in 1855, it has put into practice what we believe about Christian education. That has continued throughout our lengthy history.

 

When Emanuel became a teenager in 1868, the congregation built its first schoolhouse. The purpose was primarily to allow the pastor and a part-time teacher to carry out a thorough confirmation instruction in our Savior’s Word.

 

For sixty-six of Emanuel’s one hundred fifty-plus years, we have also supported the form of Christian education that in times past was called a Christian Day School. When Emanuel turned thirty-one in 1886, it called a full-time teacher, Emil Meyer, who began to serve in a one-room school. In two years, Emanuel added a second classroom.

 

The full-time Day School continued to grow, and the congregation tore down the old school in 1899. A new and enlarged schoolhouse arose on the same spot at a cost of $4,000. 

That building served Emanuel well for the next fifty-four years, but the congregation did not always use it as a Day School. In 1927, after forty-one years, Emanuel closed the doors of the Day School because of declining enrollment and other circumstances.

 

Emanuel continued to use the 1899 schoolhouse for other forms of Christian education. In 1941, the congregation called Mr. Victor J. Schulz to be the Director of Education and Music. He served us in that capacity for thirty years until he retired in 1971.

 
In anticipation of Emanuel’s centennial, the congregation built a new Centennial Hall for Christian education in 1953. In the next thirty years, there was always an undercurrent of congregational sentiment to revive our Christian Day School.  However, Emanuel made no further decisions until the 1980’s.

 

After lengthy discussions, with much prayerful consideration, Emanuel decided to establish a second Christian Day School. The dedication of this new thirty-three pupil Lutheran Elementary School took place at its reopening on August 28, 1983.

 

Our Director of Education and Youth Work, Mr. Robert Kugler, became the principal and teacher of grades five through eight. Miss Jane Neils, a new graduate of Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, became the teacher of grades one through four.

 

Emanuel added a Kindergarten program to the growing school in 1987, and a self-supporting Child Care Center began in 1989. The Child Care Center took over the remodeled house where several janitors had lived.  

 

Principal Ronald Zahn accepted Emanuel’s call to serve as principal and teacher in 1991. Under his leadership, enrollment continued to increase, and Emanuel decided to take a gigantic step to enhance its Christian education program. We embarked on a $2.5 million capital facilities project. The new project included the remodeling of old facilities for various uses, and the addition of new facilities for classrooms, a gymnasium, and a kitchen.

 

Although the school’s enrollment is smaller today than in the past, our program of Christian education is still strong. The congregation called Mr. Daniel Hosbach in 2004 to serve as principal and teacher. The Lord has blessed our school with a strong faculty, new curriculum materials, excellent instructional technology, and challenging co-curricular activities.

 

Throughout its history, God has blessed our school when times were good as well as in difficult times. Recent events are evidence of these blessings. Despite the fact that it became necessary to close our Child Care Center for financial reasons in 2008, we retained the preschool as part of our Lutheran Elementary School.

 

 

We remain confident that our Heavenly Father will continue to place before Emanuel the many possibilities that exist for Christian education. In accord with His good and gracious will, He will also provide us with opportunities to continue to support Christian education, always trusting our Father’s promises.