Bethlehem Lutheran leadership changing hands

Bethlehem Lutheran School Principal Lonnie Karges will be ready to pass the baton to Debbie Winkelman on July 1 as he prepares for retirement. After spending 33 years at the school and eight years elsewhere, he still wonders where the time flew.

“I’ve run up the court and played basketball with the kids so many times,” he said. “It’s been a great journey.”

Karges is confident Winkelman will continue steering the school on the right path. Winkelman has been at Bethlehem Lutheran for 26 years, starting out in its daycare, then taking over its preschool program and moving into its kindergarten class as a teacher.

While she graduated from University of Nevada, Reno in accounting, an elective class in child development helped her find her way to teaching with Bethlehem.

“I just loved the kids, and my mom always said, ‘You have that knack, they find you,’” she said.

NAVIGATING CHALLENGES

Along with other Nevada’s public school sites in the past few years, Bethlehem Lutheran has experienced COVID-19’s recent ravages, Karges said. But its place in the community has remained solid for families. Parents often have made the tough choice to provide their children an alternative education, and that comes with its own costs, Karges said.

Karges, who has spent 21 years as a principal of Bethlehem Lutheran, looks back to 2015 when one of the more recent impacts on private schools was the Education Stabilization Act, which included a mandate requiring students to be enrolled in a public school for 100 days before parents could receive a $5,000 voucher for private school tuition.

“The hard part … it was passed,” Karges said. “It passed the Nevada Supreme Court, but they never put any money in the account. … We lost a bunch of kids right then. The money never came, and many of them we never got back.”

Winkelman said it was difficult for families as well, with students attending school at Bethlehem all day and then going home and attending public school online.

“They were doing double (the work),” she said, describing some of the kindergarteners who now are eighth graders.

The school’s enrollment has seen steady growth as parents chose to stay through personal difficulties, legislative changes and the pandemic, Karges said.

“When you’re dealing with the economy and parents trying to come up with tuition and trying to help them get through, trying to help families get to school, that choice they wanted, and get to Bethlehem school and alternative school have an alternative education — that’s one of the nice things,” he said. “I know the governor and the Legislature, they’re trying to allow families to have a choice in what they wanted to do. That’s something I’ve been fighting for for 41 years. But it’s always a challenge to find those ways to get them here. And once you get them in the doors, it’s great.”

The school prides itself on maintaining a fully trained staff to help their students each year, Winkelman said. There are currently nine teaching K-8 students — and Winkelman will add to the list as she takes on additional teaching responsibilities — three in preschool and two on its administrative staff, Karges said. But the school will have to consider how to recruit as more staff members think about retiring, he added, and Winkelman said they’ve always considered each other as family.

“Keeping a strong staff with a great curriculum, that’s huge,” Karges said. “And they’re here for us, too. Those families lift us up.”

LOOKING AHEAD

The school also has started open enrollment for the 2023-24 school year for families of children in preschool through eighth grade. Currently, Bethlehem Lutheran is at 148 in its K-8 program and about 35 students in its preschool classes, and generally about 90 to 95% of its students go on to Sierra Lutheran High School.

Winkelman said she would like to focus on growth as she becomes familiar with her role, but helping current families’ needs always remains top level.

Karges and Winkelman said they are proud of Bethlehem Lutheran’s ability to support community giving and needs in the area, as well as its mission to prepare its students.

“We are preparing kids not only for God’s kingdom but for the kingdom and the world at large, for families to be successful to the community,” Karges said. “One of the big things we do: We talk about giving and we do giving.”

The school supports local fundraisers such as Toys for Tots and the Penny Wars for the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation and other events, he said.

“We’re always talking about helping others,” Winkelman said. “Our legacy is in the kids and what they do when they leave here.”

The school currently is hiring for a kindergarten teacher. Details can be found under the “Job Opportunities” tab at blcs.org/school.

The community also is invited to an open house in Lutheran Hall from 1 to 3 p.m. May 13 at 1837 Mountain St., Carson City. Families and former students who would like to extend their well-wishes on Karges’ retirement are welcome to join the staff Saturday.