Nearly a century's worth of teaching experience will soon be walking out of Campbell-Tintah School. Teachers Pat Messerschmidt, Bette Kvidt and Cathy Johnson will fall into retirement mode this summer. Superintendent Lee Kulland, who will also depart this summer, said he's appreciated their longtime dedication. "I think a large piece of Campbell-Tintah history is leaving," he said. "They're definitely the lifeblood of the school. They'll be replaced but they will definitely be missed."
Bette Kvidt, who has taught second grade for 22 non-consecutive years, can recall her experience back when Campbell and Tintah were separate entities in 1970. After the consolidation process, she took leave to raise her family and then returned in 1990. "It's just been wonderful," she said. "In a smaller school, we're really family-orientated, and you get to know the families of the children so well." She said she'll miss the excitement of the classroom, especially watching as her students mature in their reading ability from the beginning to the end. "They just walk in the classroom, and the next thing you know it's time to send them home," she said, tearing up. "I just love working with their enthusiasm and love for their learning." Kvidt has been known for her monarch butterfly unit, where students follow the metamorphosis and re-create it inside the classroom, right down to hatching butterflies.
Cathy Johnson said she will cherish her years working with staff, students and family at the school. After 34 years of teaching first-grade, she said it's like having a second family. "I'll miss the joy I see in the kids each day as they learn, especially as they learn how to read," she said. To spice up a study unit on bears, she's traditionally brought her class to check out the bear habitat at Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton.
Pat Messerschmidt has been teaching for 34 years, covering speech, English and the library. Expressing warmth toward the faculty and staff, she said she's going to miss the new encounters each day would bring forth. "I'm going to miss the kids," she said. Messerschmidt is famous for her speech communications unit, where students use sign language to form sentences that kids in the audience have to decode. She's also been on every single committee the school has to offer.
Retirement for all three includes more family time and in Johnson's case, a chance to volunteer for St. Francis HealthCare's hospice program. Kvidt plans on making several more trips to Atlanta, Ga., to see her three children and grandchildren, and Messerschmidt and has started a new chapter in life. She and her husband, Dwayne, recently built a home on Lake Lizzie, near Pelican Rapids and will relocate there.
