By Mike Pound
Globe columnist
mpound@joplinglobe.com
When Phyllis Sprenkle first walked into the halls of the Sheldon School District on Sept. 5, 1955, she entered as a young, eager first-grader. In a little more than a month, she will officially walk out of the halls for the last time.
Phyllis, who for the past 12 years has served as superintendent of the school district, will retire June 30 after spending 37 years working for the district as a teacher and administrator. All told, when you factor in her 12 years as a student, Phyllis has spent 49 years of her life roaming the halls and the classrooms of Sheldon schools.
Of course, those halls and classrooms have changed just a little bit. The white, World War II-era barracks building that housed Phyllis’ first-grade classroom is long gone. The large, brick building that used to house the elementary school and the high school serves mainly as a storage building. The elementary school — built in 1956 — is still around, as is the high-school addition that was completed in 1991.
On Tuesday morning, I sat in the principal’s office at Sheldon High School and chatted with Phyllis. I asked her if she could look out the window and still picture that little girl, all those years ago, walking into school for the first time.
“I think so,” Phyllis replied. “But the school has changed so much since that day.”
As much as Phyllis loves the Sheldon School District, she isn’t one to dwell on the past. Talk to her about the district and she will excitedly talk about how things have changed over the years.
She’ll talk about the preschool that the district opened long before most districts in the state were doing so. She will tell you that the Sheldon district was one of the first in the state to require its high-school seniors to take a class in personal finances. She will talk about the computer labs, the Smart Boards in every classroom and the after-school programs offered by the district. She will talk about other teachers and administrators who have made the district what it is today. And she will talk about the sense of family that has always been a part of the school district and that also has made it what it is today.
Phyllis didn’t really intend to spend her adult life in Sheldon. She’s glad she did, but it wasn’t something she planned. After Phyllis and her husband, Paul, graduated from Missouri State University (then known as Southwest Missouri State University), they moved back to Sheldon for the summer. Paul had been accepted into graduate school at the University of Iowa, and he, Phyllis and their young son were planning to head north. Shortly before they were to leave, the Sheldon High School home-economics teacher resigned. Phyllis and Paul did the math. He didn’t have a job. She didn’t have a job. They had a young son. So, Paul attended graduate school at Pittsburg State University, and Phyllis taught home economics, seventh-grade science and library science. She also was the senior class adviser, yearbook adviser and student newspaper adviser.
“I have no idea why I came back the second year,” Phyllis said with a laugh.
Actually, she does know why she came back. She came back for the same reason she came back every year. For the same reason Paul, who has been teaching in the district for 35 years, comes back every year. For the same reason her dear friend Eileen Leininger, who has taught in the district for 36 years, comes back.
Sheldon is their home, and the students who make their way through the same halls they have patrolled all these years are their family. In a few weeks, Phyllis will walk out the school that has been her home for 49 years for the last time — at least as an employee. She says she hopes to be back to visit often, but things will be different. She knows that.
I asked Phyllis what she will do in mid-August when the new school year begins without her. She paused for a second and thought about that.
“Oh, it’s going to be very hard,” she said softly.
I asked Phyllis if I almost made her cry.
She said I did.
Local News
Mike Pound: School district becomes a place to call home
- Local News
-
-
City wants to buy weather radios for those without
Phil Jones had been working on a construction project outside his house all day on May 22 and was unaware that a tornado watch had been issued. Once he was inside, though, his weather radio went off, and he learned that a warning had been issued.
-
Architects present preliminary JHS plans at community meeting
Reaction appeared mostly supportive Thursday night among the roughly 50 people who attended a community meeting at which architects presented their preliminary site plans for the future combined Joplin High School and Franklin Technology Center.
-
Confessed shooter testifies against co-defendants in Pittsburg murder case
Rickey Smith testified Thursday that as he came in the back door of Ryan Bailey’s home in Pittsburg with a 9 mm pistol in his hand, Bailey looked up from the couch in his living room.
-
School district’s proposed street-closing plan questioned
Plans to close some streets near the proposed Joplin High School drew questions, including a challenge from a former Joplin mayor, during a public hearing this week.
-
Neosho council approves new golf cart contract
The purchase of golf carts was back on the agenda this week for the Neosho City Council. City Attorney Steve Hays said there were errors in the financing terms that were part of a bid approved last month for the purchase of 55 gas-powered carts from E-Z-Go for $144,195, so the purchase of a new fleet was rebid.
-
Mike Pound: Spirit of competition evident during double-overtime game
When I played basketball in high school, I played in several very close games.
Now, some people who may have known me in high school are probably laughing right now and saying, “What Mike meant to say is that when he was in high school, he came very close to playing in some games.” -
Mo. optometrist filed $40 million refund claim
A southwest Missouri optometrist who filed a tax return claiming a $40 million refund has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.
-
Okla. receives waiver from No Child Left Behind
Oklahoma’s top education official reacted with glee Thursday with the announcement that the state is one of 10 states being granted a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law that requires students be proficient in reading and math by 2014 — but focused on getting students to “just pass the tests.”
-
Kan. House approves bipartisan redistricting bill
Power in the Kansas House is likely to shift next year from rural parts of the state to the Kansas City area after members overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan bill Thursday for redrawing their districts.
-
Fugitive in 1993 British heist arrested in Ozark
A man suspected of stealing about $1.5 million from a security van in England in 1993 has been arrested in southwest Missouri.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Expert: Removing LA School's Staff 'Appropriate'
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Winter Slamming North Asia, Parts of Europe
Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
