Trinity Lutheran School, 105 Allen Street, Jenera, will celebrate 75 years since its beginning with the 1948-1949 school year. Two services will be held at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 301 North Main Street, Jenera, on Sunday, May 19 at 8:00 and 10:30 a.m.
The services use hymns and readings from the first graduation service in 1949 and the school building dedication in 1952. The readings are: Deuteronomy 11:1-7, 16-21, 1 Corinthians 2:1-10, and Matthew 7:24-27.
Silas Schmitzer, Trinity graduate in 1997, will be the guest pastor and Jeremy Dennings, a former teacher at Trinity, will be the guest organist. Hymns are: "Beautiful Savior, Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds, Now Thank We All Our God, and Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow". The Choir will sing "You are the Christ" in the first service and the children of the school will sing "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" and "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb" in the second service.
After the second service, a rededication of the school is planned at the school building.
At the school in the afternoon, there will be a short program and an open house with displays. Everyone is welcome to attend the events at the church and school and both are handicapped accessible. More information on the celebration is at www.tlcjenera.org or by calling 319-326-4685.
SCHOOL HISTORY
Trinity Lutheran School began classes in September,1948 although the school had its beginning in discussions as early as1938. Pastor John Gauss and Trinity's church members desired daily training in God's Word along with the teaching of secular school subjects and skills for the children. The church basement was improved, a Board of Christian Education was elected and two good used buses were purchased. Mr. Wayne Wiechmann was assigned as the first teacher and Pastor Walter C. Voss volunteered to teach as well. The school opened with seventy-two students. After two years, Miss Rosemary Slama was assigned to teach the lower grades.
Meanwhile, the school building committee made plans for the erection of a school building on property northeast of the church, donated by the John Heldman family Work was begun in the spring of 1951 and a cinder block with red brick facing building, consisting of three classrooms, a library, restrooms and a furnace room was dedicated to the Glory of God on April 27, 1952. The entire assembly sang the hymn “Now Thank We All our God” as they entered the new building.
In 1966, as the State of Ohio stipulated that there be only two grades per teacher per classroom and that 30 students be the maximum number of students per classroom, plans were made to expand the school building. The enrollment was 103 students. A new addition to the south was dedicated on October 13,1968 consisting of a classroom and a combination principal's office/Kindergarten room.
Two more classrooms, a kitchen, restrooms with lockers and showers and a 5,400 square foot multi-purpose room with retractable bleachers were added to the west with the dedication on February 12, 1984. The faculty included two men and three women and the enrollment was 112 students.
n addition to Kindergarten through grade eight, a Preschool was added in 1990. In 2020, Preschool was expanded to include three and four year-old children.
In 1990, a Nature Center was made north of the school and in 1994, an analemmatic Sundial was put in. In 2000, Playground 2000 was made south of the school and in 2023, the east playground was replaced.
The largest number of students for one school year was in 1993-94 with a total enrollment of 133 students. From 1949-2024, 684 students have graduated from Trinity.
The 2023-2024 faculty consists of a principal, an assistant principal and six teachers teaching 62 students.
