Julie Strickler has a youthful face and energetic voice that would never suggest she is about to retire after 31 years of teaching. On Monday, she sat in her empty 5th grade classroom at Jefferson Elementary School, sorting through the treasure trove of books collected over the years. She estimated she had already given away about 350 books to students and still hadn’t made a dent in the collection.
“I’m going to leave a lot for the next teacher,” she said.
Strickler will not be going far; she’s been hired as a library paraprofessional at Jefferson, allowing her to continue to work with students, but without lesson plans, papers to grade and parent conferences.
“There’s so much a teacher has to think about. They have so much on their plate,” Strickler said.
Strickler knows firsthand how much of a difference a good teacher can make in a child’s life. Her father took his own life when she was 13, leaving her mother to raise Strickler and her two sisters alone. Money was tight and she did not think college was in her future. Good teachers, however, gave her a deep appreciation of the arts, namely drama and writing. Strickler won a writing contest that allowed her to attend Southwestern College, Winfield, on scholarship.
“If it had not been for some of those teachers, I don’t think I would have gone beyond JUCO. I think that’s a lot of why I went into teaching,” she said.
Many of Strickler’s former students are now adults. In some cases, she’s taught a family’s second generation.
Ryan Sell, fire chief for the Iola Fire Department, and one of Strickler’s first students back in 1986, has many fond memories of her as a teacher.
“She was the first teacher I could relate to,” he said. “She had a way with us that made us want to learn.”
Sell recalled a fateful day. It was Jan. 28, 1986, and Strickler had herded her students into the school library to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on TV. Sell said it was an exciting time for teachers because one of the seven crew members, Christa McAuliffe, was a school teacher. Sell said he remembered clearly how Strickler reacted when the shuttle exploded on live TV, killing the crew inside.
“She just ever so smoothly walked up and shut the TV off,” he said. “I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she downplayed it so well.”
Sell said he didn’t even realize how bad it was until much later.
“I hate to see her leave the classroom, but I’m happy to hear she’s not leaving the school system,” Sell said.
Brad Crusinbery, principal of Jefferson, said he was also grateful to have Strickler around as a resource for both students and teachers.
“It seems like she was able to build a rapport and bond with those kids really quickly,” he said.
In his eight years at Jefferson, Crusinbery said has known Strickler to be quick to volunteer for projects and committees. She was also good at giving advice.
