Wulff honored as

Teacher of the Year

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A teacher who serves students with special needs received a special award Wednesday night.

Annette Wulff, a New Ulm Middle School teacher who works with learning disabled students, was named District 88 Teacher of the Year by her peers at the district's annual employee recognition banquet at the Holiday Inn.

She has taught 23 years in District 88.

Wulff was chosen from four candidates. Nominees for the award were Marion Klimmek, media generalist at Jefferson Elementary School; Sue Sperstad, a fifth-grade teacher at Washington Elementary School; and Jill Curry, a family and consumer science teacher at New Ulm High School.

Middle school guidance counselor Paul Bowar said Wulff's philosophy of education is that the future lies with the youth and that every student is a gem who must be handled by a trained expert.

Wulff began her career as a paraprofessional with District 88 in 1975 and became the middle school's learning disabled teacher in 1979. She also teaches graduate courses at St. Mary's University in Winona.

"To be a teacher is the greatest thing in the world," she said after receiving the award. "You people are the molders of the future."

Wulff likened students lack of recognition of their own potential to closed doors.

"All those doors and no keys. Teachers need to be those keys," Wulff wrote in a commentary prepared for the banquet.

"The biggest frustration that Annette has in her job is the perception of learning disabled kids. 'These kids are not always appreciated because people don't understand that they have a learning disability and that they are not dumb. People should not be shocked when the kids she has in her classes go to college and succeed,"' the commentary stated.

In remarks at the banquet, District 88 Superintendent Harold Remme said New Ulm's public schools fared well in a year of great uncertainty for education. He said the levy referendum, which passed by a narrow margin last year, is "going to be a major factor in the future."

"It was a difficult year," Remme said. "None of us were able to do our best, but we tried our hardest. Our schools' success depends on your efforts."

District 88 School Board Chair Sue Ullery said the year was a welcome change from the past because the referendum allowed the district to expand.

"It was exciting to add back positions rather than cut, cut, cut," Ullery said. "That was getting old."

Ullery said the referendum vote was "the single most important event of the year."

New Ulm Education Association President Eric Torgerson offered similar sentiment.

"Our schools are only as good as the people that work in them," he said.

The district also recognized four retiring teachers. Middle school guidance counselor Paul Bowar, middle school art and math teacher John Ingebritson, high school math and computer teacher Con Trapp and middle and senior high English teacher Kaye Green received retirement gifts from the district.

Donna and Curt Lambrecht, owners of Lambrecht's gift shop, received the Community Support Award. Ullery said the Lambrechts have made generous donations to the bands and plays in both money and time.

Dean Hosna, representative of New Ulm Bus Lines, gave bus driver Joni Melhop the 2002 Bus Driver of the Year award. Melhop first began driving buses in 1975. She has driven both morning, afternoon and kindergarten routes ever since.

Michelle Johnson, secretary to Remme, received the 2002 Support Person of the Year award. Johnson began working for the district in 1997 after seven years at New Ulm Medical Center.

Marilyn Lieske, a volunteer reading tutor, was awarded the 2002 Outstanding Lay Educator Award. Lieske is a former elementary school teacher from Denver. She moved to New Ulm after she retired and volunteers tutoring first- through third-graders in reading in mornings before school and during the summer.

The district also recognized Rongrong Lu, an English teacher visiting New Ulm from China. Lu thanked the district for the honor and said she learned a lot during her stay in New Ulm.