In the Archives: St. Paul's Lutheran School

As we saw earlier today, I spent my K-8 years at St. Paul's Lutheran School in Sodus. Tonight, we're going to see how the school came to be. The idea of a Christian day school was discussed as far back as 1957, but it wasn't until 1967 that the church was ready to break ground on the school. The image in this D.J. McGrath & Associates rendering is exactly how the original school looked.

A group of church leaders, including Pastor Henry Peter, broke ground on the two-classroom, one-office, $77,000 project on June 4, 1967.

According to a report from Sodus Township Building Inspector Clarence Steinke, my grandpa, a permit was granted for the brick school (listed as a $74,000 project) that same month. Zeiger Lumber Co. was expected to have the building ready for operation by September 1968.

In the meantime, the school called its first principal, Wesley Plath, who accepted the job in April 1968.

About a month later, Miss Frances Sill came on as the school's second teacher. I'm not sure how the WELS' call process worked back then, but it's interesting that she previously attended St. Matthew's in Benton Harbor, and her parents still lived in the area when she got the call.

The contractors must have finished the project on, or near, their deadline, because school was in session for the 1968-69 school year. It included a 7-year-old Andy Steinke, second from right in the third row up, and Elaine Steinke, second from left in the top row. My Aunt Elaine was the first graduating class that year.

I don't have much to say about this one other than the school class picture hasn't changed much over the years, has it?

The school continued to turn out classrooms full of kids for decades to come. It was doing so well that in 2000 (or possibly 1999), the church broke ground on an addition to the school. I was the student representative in the ceremony, so you'd think I'd remember the date, but I can't remember if I just graduated from eighth grade or I was just entering eighth grade.

Sadly, by 2007, the difficult decision was made to close the school due to declining enrollment. And it wasn't the only one. St. Matthew's discontinued everything but it's preschool and day care that same year. A week later, Good Shepherd announced it wasn't going to reopen for the 2008 school year either.