LYLE – Jerry Reshetar has reported for duty at Lyle Public Schools.

Sunday, August 29, 1999

LYLE – Jerry Reshetar has reported for duty at Lyle Public Schools.

He has received his orders from the Lyle Board of Education.

The new superintendent is busy mending fences, building bridges and pushing forward his agenda to deliver a quality education in Mower County’s smallest school district.

He is excited. This is the opportunity and challenge he has been seeking.

What is the Lyle Independent School District getting?

"They’re getting an educational leader, whose focus is on long-range planning," he said. "They’re getting a superintendent who believes a school should be a fun place for teachers and kids and other people. I’ve always believed that learning is life’s greatest adventure."

When teenagers’ cars and pickup trucks fill the parking lot and big yellow school buses disgorge boys and girls arriving for the first day of the 1999-2000 school year Wednesday, Reshetar will be there to greet them.

He was hired to replace Jeff Frein, who left the superintendency near the end of the 1998-99 school year and who had been hired to replace long-time superintendent Paul Trelstad, who retired.

A native of Austin, his mother, Eula Reshetar still lives in the county seat, where her son and two other brothers and a sister also graduated from Austin High School. His father is deceased.

He comes to the Lyle position from St. Ansgar, Iowa, where he was middle school principal and before that a physical education instructor.

Retired Austin High teacher and wrestling coach Chuck Prunty was a big influence on Reshetar’s life when he was a teenager. After attending then-Austin Junior College, Reshetar went to Drake University on a wrestling scholarship and earned a bachelor of science degree in education.

Then came teaching/coaching stints at Waverly, Lawton and Carlisle in Iowa before coming to St. Ansgar, where he distinguished himself in several ways, including an innovative physical education program that focused on fitness for lifetime health.

Reshetar’s students experienced scuba diving, trout fishing, orienteering, rappelling, cross country skiing and winter camping as well as sailing, fencing and karate.

His wife, JoAnn, is clinical coordinator for radiology at Riverland Community College-Austin campus.

The couple has a son and two daughters.

"My goal has been to be a superintendent," Reshetar said of his decision to pursue the Lyle administrative position. "The fact that Lyle is close to our home in St. Ansgar and that I have roots in Lyle made this a natural fit for me."

Also this year at Lyle, Tom Hiebert has taken over kindergarten through twelfth grades principal duties.

Despite a larger-than-usual graduating class this spring, the Lyle district will see enrollment drop this fall.

Highly capable Steve Baumann, who filled in administratively after Frein left, while also teaching and coaching, will be able to concentrate on the latter this year.

The district lost six teachers, including long-time instructor, David Dahlquist. Reshetar has already hired six new teachers and expects to fill the Spanish post soon.

Saying he has received "good guidance" from the Lyle Board of Education, Reshetar all but guarantees success for students and teachers at Lyle.

"We can provide a high academic experience for the school and combine it in a small school atmosphere and offer the best of both worlds at Lyle," he said.

While professing "excitement," when he took over the Lyle superintendent’s job, Reshetar also confessed frustration at learning Minnesota’s school budgeting system.

Reshetar is one of those human beings who see every day as a new challenge. As he said, "The adrenalin is always flowing."

He said kids and teacher offer the best possible atmosphere for his education and experience as well as new ideas.

Among the experiences he possesses is a career in the U.S. Army Reserve. Reshetar is a full colonel, commanding a materiel management unit.

"My Army Reserve experience has helped me as an educator in such areas as strategic and long-range planning," he said. "Also, it helps me to establish budgeting priorities and the leadership training has been invaluable."

"But," he added, "most of all it has given me people skills and the ability to deal with a variety of education backgrounds."

He also knows Lyle. This is where he spent summers as a child on his grandparents’ farm outside of town or playing in Lyle City Park.

Reshetar is at work on developing a long-range plan for the school district in such areas as curriculum, technology, building needs and spending.

He also is nourishing open communications everywhere he goes and to enhance the morale of the Lyle faculty.

"The teacher in the classroom is the key component to a quality education," he said. "That’s where it all begins."

He is not intimidated by the many demands society has placed on today’s public schools, including sex education, drug prevention and all the other issues.

Reshetar applies the "It takes a village to raise a child" observation to describe today’s public schools and said he is not intimidated by the challenge of meeting that role.

After a picnic last week with teachers, support staff and school board members, Reshetar is ready for the new school year to begin.

"I have every confidence in our school support staff and teachers that we are all going to work together to make it a successful year for the students," he said.