Friday was Hampton Lutheran School’s last day.
Truly.
Until the very end last Friday, the student body of two preschoolers, four kindergarten-fifth graders and their teachers kept their school-family quietly close. Only those associated directly with the school—students, volunteers, teachers—graced the hallways and classrooms that last day.
Principal and teacher Jean Carnoali talked behind the little brick school as Hampton Lutheran’s handful-worth of students and teachers rushed in, 11 o’clock approaching.
It was almost time for the school’s final chapel service, families and faithful to join them.
Could anything have been done to save Hampton Lutheran, in existence since 1969?
Carnoali, without an air of defeat, said, “There was nothing obviously that, hey, if only we had done that…. there were so many factors involved that I don’t think there was any one thing.”
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Some of it comes from social change, Carnoali ventured. “Demographics are changing. We’re not unique among Christian or private schools in in closing. I think it’s just priorities for parents… busy, busy schedules.”
In 1991, Sharon Goertzen and her family returned to Hampton to send their children to Hampton Lutheran. Goertzen herself had attended.
“That’s the only reason we moved back: so we could bring our kids to go to school here. It was a big decision.”
As the years passed, fewer families stayed in Hampton. Even fewer returned.
Hampton Lutheran School’s enrollment peaked around 2003 with nearly 90 students, Carnoali recalled.
The teachers paid little mind to enrollment, Carnoali said, including the two she shared teaching duties with this year.
“They are both very creative, artistic teachers and have done just as much for their small classes as they would have for a class of 30.”
“You become a Lutheran School teacher to touch lives. What we have to think about is we’re not just teaching kiddos, we’re ministering to families.”
Ministering families, thereby forging them, Goertzen indicated.
“I was on the board of education when we hired Jean, way back, and whatever year that was. I remember when she came, she became such a good friend.”
As in many small towns, the village was the school’s good friend, Carnoali said.
“Visiting with people on the street, or seeing people in the grocery store, just stopping and visiting and talking and they’ve all been very supportive of the school.”
There is no animosity between the Hampton schools public and private.
“I’m not bashing the public school at all, but it’s not only that we got a good school, it’s that we gained a new family that I didn’t even know we were missing,” Goertzen said.
“All of a sudden, it’s done.”
But only in a way, Goertzen maintained. “It’s not over, it’s just going be different. I think we’ve gone through so many changes lately. This change is just really hard. It’s really hard for me.”
It was a hard, long-thought out decision for the school’s parent churches, Zion Lutheran Church and St. Peter Lutheran Church.
Pastor Dan Barbey, one of two pastors serving the school, told the Independent in March: ““The school board made the recommendation in the fall. They could only make the recommendation. One congregation or the other (Zion Lutheran or St. Peter’s) could vote, and if they voted to withdraw from the arrangement, that ended the arrangement.”
In January, the two churches made their decisions.
Goertzen has a son on one of the boards, but declined to discuss his stance or experiences, saying only, “It’s just been tragic.”
Hampton Lutheran School’s preschoolers have been all but indifferent, not understanding their preschool graduation early Friday afternoon was Hampton Lutheran School’s last.
The older the students, the more the change is understood, Carnoali said.
“For our fifth grader who’s been here since preschool, I think it’s been hard for him and the middle children. They’ve expressed several times that it’s hard to see the school close, or when will we see you again?”
Judy Holtzen, a school volunteer, had a first-grader as her “prayer partner.”
“We prayed that God would be with us and help us to get through it. Just to help Jane grow and stay with the Lord.”
Otherwise, she said: “I don’t know that they say anything. But they know.”
Holtzen has seen many Hampton Lutheran students “grow and stay with the Lord.” Her husband, Harvey, served as the school’s principal a part of the teaching staff following the Holtzen family’s arrival in the 1970s. Since then, she has been involved in the school in several capacities: music teacher, janitor, substitute teacher, volunteer.
Holtzen said she has confidence in the students and the schools they are going to, but there will be adjusting to do.
“Because there were few kids and they got a lot of individual help, their new classroom will be different for them.”
Holtzen will have some adjusting to do, too.
“That’s going to be the hard part. Not going in there, not seeing the kids.”
Goertzen seemed to be yet in some state of disbelief.
“You have to really start over and figure out, where do we go from here? I know from my parents and my grandparents, they all went to Christian Lutheran schools, and now it’s just done.”
The sense of ministry and family isn’t, Carnoali said.
“You want to do well, you want to see the school succeed, but you have to come back to where our foundation is: knowing that no matter what happens, you know that God is in control, and he will move it forward.”