Counselor And Principal In Final Year Of Working Together

Photo courtesy of Sydney Koehle

Jerry and Sydney Koehle capture one of their many father daughter moments.

After being a math teacher at Roosevelt Jr. High School and our school, Jerry Koehle became the ninth grade assistant principal when his daughter Sydney Koehle was in ninth grade. When the junior high changed to a middle school, he decided to stay here as the back to the eighth grade principal. After S. Koehle went to college and got her Master’s Degree, she also started working at our school as an eighth grade counselor.

This year will be J. Koehle’s last year working as a principal and with his daughter due to his retirement.

J. Koehle said he is looking forward to retirement, but that he will miss seeing and working with his daughter everyday and their daily conversations.

S. Koehle said she’s happy for her dad and that he finally gets to relax but it has been nice being able to work in the same building and in the same grade level.

“A definite benefit of working together is that he is very easy to talk to because I have known him my entire life and I know that we share the same vision or outlook on education and we agree on the things that are important,” said S. Koehle.

Memories, everyone has them and most even have favorites. For instance, J. Koehle’s favorite memory of working with his daughter is seeing her return to work in August after she went through some tough times.

“She is such a strong person and not only does an amazing job being a school counselor, but she is truly an example for students,”  said J. Koehle.

S. Koehle said some of her favorite memories are students asking if he is my husband and if I am his wife.

“It always makes us laugh when kids ask us that because to us, the age difference is pretty obvious,” S. Koehle.

Speaking of differences, S. Koehle does think that it will be different for her without her dad working there, but that difference is not always a bad thing.

Finally, J. Koehle fills us in on his biggest while being a principal.

“I feel my biggest accomplishment is my dedication to trying to help students become a better student and person. I went into education because I enjoyed working with students and that is still true,” said J. Koehle.