Rameen: Coming up on City Spotlight, it's the next to last episode of season seven.

We're on location talking for the first time about Teutopolis.

We'll first talk with the new mayor of Teutopolis, Dave Repking, who will give us an overview of the community of Teutopolis, the location, new buildings, and some of the major businesses in Teutopolis.

Then we'll talk to Teutopolis schools for the first time with the superintendent of Teutopolis Unit #50 schools, Matt Sturgeon, who will give us an overview of the buildings in the school district, a look back at the past school year and they look ahead to the upcoming school year in Teutopolis.

It's the 20th community to be featured on City Spotlight.

We're talking Teutopolis, here on City Spotlight.

[music plays] City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

Hello, and welcome to another edition of City Spotlight.

As you can see, we are on location once again, here in season seven, and we are taping for the first time in Teutopolis.

Yes, we are in Downtown Teutopolis.

Teutopolis is our 20th community to be featured here on City Spotlight.

As we tape here on July 28th, we are taping in the brand new and renovated village building here in Teutopolis.To help us out in this first segment, we welcome to the program, the new mayor of Teutopolis Dave Repking.

Dave?

Welcome to the program.

Dave: Thank you.

It is an honor for me, but more for the Village of Teutopolis to be featured on this show.

So we all thank you very much.

Rameen: Glad to be back in Teutopolis as folks at home, maybe familiar with the recent WEIU production of the Teutopolis, This is Our Story.

We're glad to be back in Teutopolis talking with Dave for the first time.

Before we get into an overview of the community, Dave, you're a first time guest, tell us about yourself?

Dave: Well, I was born and raised in Effingham.

Rameen: Okay.

Dave: I went to St. Anthony high school graduated from there.

In 1975, I graduated from EIU.

Rameen: Very good.

Dave: Not only myself, but all four of my children are graduated from Eastern as well as their spouses- Rameen: Excellent.

Dave: ... and my brother and two sisters, so.

Married my wife, Louise in 76, we have lived in the two Teutopolis community for well over 40 years, and in the Village of Teutopolis for 34 years.

Spent most of my adult career in sales and the last 30 was in food service sales.

One of my biggest accounts in the early years was EIU itself, so sold them a lot of good craft merchandise.

Rameen: Very good.

Two EIU grads sitting up here, Very good.

A little bit years apart in graduation, but nonetheless EIU blue here on the set here in Teutopolis.

So Dave, our first time talking Teutopolis here on City Spotlight, I always like to mention right off the bat, that the first time we talk about a new community, the location of the Teutopolis, you guys are located here in Effingham County, and just to the east of Effingham.

You have Route 40 going through the town and talk about your location here.

Dave: Well we have Route 40, but we have easy access to get to the interstates in Effingham, and the other major highways would go through Effingham.

Rameen: Right.

Dave: We do a lot of interactive business between the two communities, I mean, it's a Stone's throw away now.

Years ago, it used to be about a mile or two miles in between.

Rameen: Correct.

Dave: Now I think it goes from one line to the next, so.

Rameen: Yeah, the gap is closed.

Dave: We've got a good relationship with the city of Effingham.

Hopefully, they feel the same way about us and it's a win-win situation.

Rameen: All right.

Very good.

We're glad to be here taping here in Teutopolis.

I want to talk about the buildings in your community as we know what Teutopolis, you notice the mainstay, the older buildings, but also as you come into town on Route 40 on the east... then you come into the town you notice some more modern, newer looking buildings as is the case with the building that we're taping in here.

The Village Hall here in Teutopolis, that's where we're taping.

A community of this size, you don't see buildings like this.

So tell us about this brand new Village Hall?

Dave: Well, the Village Hall, we started a savings program about 30 years ago, realizing that we were going to have to replace it.

It's a hard decision when you replace an old building, but there were issues with the building that really couldn't be fixed without spending a ton of money.

We decided that to take some of what we had and put it aside each year, which we did for 30 years, we ended up building this building.

I say, "We", I wasn't on the Board at the time, but we built this building without raising one penny of tax money, or taking out one penny of loan.

We also had a few years back put a nice maintenance garage on the north side of the town, which also came from that fund again, without having to raise any taxes on it.

Rameen: To have this facility here, the municipal village building for the community, what an asset for the community moving forward.

Dave: It is.

We plan on the future drafting some recommendations as to how we can let local people use the hall for different meetings.

Being new in it, it just opened up in February, we wanted to get all the bugs worked out and have our open house and then go from there, and make it open to the community.

Rameen: All right, very good.

I mentioned some of the newer buildings that you see as you come into town.

With the experience that I gained on the community with the Teutopolis, This is Our Story program, we saw it a lot as we came into town.

A building that we were at or nearby, the new Teutopolis Banquet Hall.

What an addition to the community, obviously it is used frequently?

Dave: Yes, it is.

It's a unfortunate, they had a major fire there a couple of years ago.

As somebody pointed out, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

", well, this was true with that.

We didn't realize how much the KC Hall, the banquet hall, banquet center was to this community.

Rameen: Right.

Dave: It is a beautiful building on the inside.

They did a very fine job.

They do so much for the community.

It's it would be hard to mention in this segment.

Rameen: Absolutely.

A great history in that location, the things that used to be there through the years.

Another facility, as you would say, "A stone's throw away is Effingham", a stone's throw away from the banquet hall is the Monastery Museum there on the Southwest corner of the St. Francis CC Church here in Teutopolis.

The Monastery Museum is something that's about to open here, we're taking here on July 28th.

That is about to open on August 1st.

Tell us what's inside that museum.

Dave: The monastery museum basically holds the history of the Teutopolis in it.

There's a lot of things from the seminary that are in there, but a lot of old tools, whatever you can think of that the people use back when they first came, it's located in the newly renovated Sister Ethelbert Center.

Rameen: Correct.

It is a beautiful facility.

They just had their grand opening and are getting ready to open to the public.

So it's very much worthwhile at the time to go see what's all in there.

I had firsthand experience seeing it myself as we taped all of the Teutopolis, This is Our Story program there.

I have been through almost all the rooms, I think twice now.

So thank you to the ladies that give the tour there.

Yeah, you're right- Dave: They've got an excellent group of volunteers,.

Rameen: ... literally the whole history of the Teutopolis is in that building.

So definitely worth a look there, opens up August 1st.

Overview of the businesses in the community, Dave, you obviously have a lot of longstanding businesses in the community.

Tell us about your business.

Dave: We do.

We've got a lot of third and fourth generation businesses still going.

We've got a lot of small concrete contractors, electrical contractors.

We've got three large manufacturing facilities, Siemer, Three Z Printing, and Stevens Industries.

Stevens Industries is planning a big addition.

Rameen: Wow.

Dave: We've got some intermediate ones like Canarm, on the east side of town.

Some are newer buildings, some are older buildings.

Rameen: Correct.

Dave: As you can see across the road here, Siemer Milling just did a renovation a few years back.

Took an old building and made it look beautiful.

So we've got a nice mix of new buildings, old buildings.

You can drive through the residential sections, it's the same way.

There're new houses, old houses, but the lawns are kept up.

People are proud of the community of Teutopolis.

Rameen: I know you guys probably hold your village meetings in the evening, but to have that mural that's over your shoulder there... Wow.

What a view?

Dave: It is.

We're sitting right here again, in the history of Teutopolis, so.

Rameen: Absolutely.

Very good.

As we learned in the Teutopolis, This is Our Story program, your predecessor, Greg Hess, his story was about the Prairie View Subdivision.

We don't talk too much about new housing in particular and in detail with a lot of these programs here on City Spotlight, but I thought it'd be fair to bring up since, as Greg put it one of the more recent successes of the community.

Dave: Yeah.

They got together decided with the school district to help them out.

They wanted to try to increase the population, so they accessed a piece of ground.

I don't know exactly, I think there's 40 some lots in it, maybe 50.

We've got 33 houses built right now.

Most are occupied, some are still under construction, but every one of them are under roof.

So it's going to be an asset to the community it already is.

Rameen: Um, in the community of Teutopolis, I don't know the land markings from one end of town to the other north, south, east, west.

Are you still looking at, maybe in addition to that subdivision more housing- Dave: [crosstalk] Yeah.

We've got area to the south that would be easy.

Rameen: Okay.

Dave: It's just finding the landowners that are willing to sell- Rameen: Right.

Dave: ... or whatever we need to do to get their property but that's what we're keeping in mind for the future.

Rameen: I think it'd be fair before we end our conversation here, Dave...

Thank you for your first time here on City Spotlight, as we talk about the Teutopolis for the first time.

Learning about the Teutopolis and the Teutopolis, This is Our Story program.

It's a very unique community.

You said you are from Effingham, but you've been in Teutopolis later here in life.

What a unique community with all that you have here, the schools, the churches, your thoughts on the community as a whole?

Dave: Moving over here, there was always that rivalry in sports between St. Anthony and Teutopolis [crosstalk], a big one.

I mean to me, it would rank up there next to the Cardinals and the Cubs, but I may be blowing that a little out of proportion.

Rameen: No, it's intense, it is.

Dave: But there's been cousins playing basketball against each other- Rameen: Right.

Dave: ... but this is just such a dynamic community.

I mean, we've got TCFP, Teutopolis Community for Progress.

Teutopolis for Tomorrow.

We've got civic organizations like the KC's, the Civics Club, the American Legion.

It's a very caring community.

The biggest asset of this community is the people.

If there are somebody in need, they're there.

Somebody, God forgive gets stricken with cancer, there's people there to help.

It just amazes me how much giving and charitable work is done in this community.

Rameen: I'm sure we'll hear about people working together with Matt Sturgeon on our next segment about the school.

Another thing that people in central well know, that when you hear about the Teutopolis, you hear about the hardworking people of Teutopolis.

Dave: Yes.

I mean the village was formed in 1839 with a hardworking group of German immigrants that came over.

They got their property and yeah, the work ethic is known.

Most of the retailers in Effingham, if they get a chance to hire a young person from Teutopolis, they'll jump on it because they know they're there to work and it makes you feel good.

Rameen: Not on my list of questions, Dave, but I think it's fair to ask as we're taping here on July 28th, how did the community of the Village of Teutopolis... and I've used the word navigate on almost every episode.

How's the community navigated through COVID-19 as we tape you're on July 28th?

Dave: I think we've done as well or better than most other communities.

Greg, when he was mayor kept everybody abreast of what was going on, had put things on Facebook that were needed by the community, different ideas, what we needed to do.

So I think we weathered through it pretty well.

Rameen: Final thoughts here, as we wrap up here.

We're in the back half of 2021, tell us something that's going on or that you're excited about here moving forward?

Dave: Well, we've got hopefully two more businesses getting ready to build and our new commercial park.

Rameen: Excellent.

Dave: We've got that filled up.

So Canarm just had a major addition on the east side, they are having an open house coming up.

I mean, we had our open house here, so there's a lot of things- Rameen: They added some signage since the last time I was through- Dave: [crosstalk] Yes, yes.

I mean, we've got a lot of exciting things going.

I mean, we're going to grow and change.

As I had one person, when I campaign told me, he said he didn't know if he "Wanted to Teutopolis to grow".

I said, "Well, it's going to grow, our hope is that we can guide it."

But with the people we have in town our future's bright.

Rameen: And we look forward to catching up with you on those newer looking businesses, as we move forward.

Talking Teutopolis for the first time here on City Spotlight.

We thank first time here on City Spotlight, the mayor of the Teutopolis, Dave Repking.

Dave pleasure having you on the program.

Dave: Thank you.

I enjoyed it.

Rameen: Thank you very much.

Coming up next here on City Spotlight, we'll continue talking Teutopolis.

We'll talk Teutopolis schools with Matt Sturgeon.

But first let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Teutopolis.

[music plays] We're back here on City Spotlight.

As we continue this first-time episode here on Teutopolis, we continue taping here at the Teutopolis Village Hall.

In this segment, we're going to talk all about Teutopolis schools.

To help us out, we welcome first time to the program, Matt Sturgeon, he's the superintendent of the Teutopolis Unit #50 schools, Matt, welcome to the program.

Matt: Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure to be here with City Spotlight.

Appreciate the opportunity.

Rameen: Thank you very much.

Matt is a first time guest here on City Spotlight, but he's not unfamiliar to WEIU TV.

He recently was a storyteller for the Teutopolis, This is Our Story Program.

So glad to have Matt back on WEIU again.

Matt, you're a first time guest to the program, tell us about yourself.

Matt: Yeah, thank you very much.

So again, my name is Matt Sturgeon.

I'm the second year superintendent at Teutopolis Community Unit School District #50 Schools.

Professionally, I have 15 years of educational experience.

I was a former junior and senior high school, social science teacher and coach for four years before taking the transition into administration, of which I was an athletic director, assistant principal, principal, and again, second year here at Teutopolis schools.

Personally, my wife, Beth and I have three children, all of which will be at Teutopolis Grade School here this next year.

We transitioned into the Teutopolis Community just over a year ago, joined the church, coached various park districts, teams here over this past summer, and are feeling fully acclimated here to the community.

So for everyone that's reached out to welcome us and make us feel at home, we greatly appreciate it, Teutopolis, is certainly that, it's home.

Rameen: So you're very much involved in the community, obviously, there.

Very good.

All right.

So again, talking Teutopolis schools and having Matt on the first time, we're going to kind of get an overview of the school district here.

So Matt let's talk about the buildings in your school district.

You have three main buildings?

Matt: Yes.

So Teutopolis Community unit school district is comprised of three different schoolhouses or school buildings.

First and foremost, I guess we serve preschool through 12th grade.

We have just over 1,000 students, 135 staff members.

Historically speaking, the Board established a mission statement several years back to ensure that the district is doing everything it possibly can to support students intellectually, emotionally, and socially.

To be able to not only do well while they're in PK through 12th grade, but more importantly to be successful beyond the walls of our school district, beyond our community, and to try to have a great positive impact.

Certainly, Teutopolis graduates have done that and continued to do that throughout the region, as well as here at home.

Rameen: Your buildings, the grade school on the east side of town is the oldest of the three main buildings.

You have the junior high, which is not too old.

It's about 20 some years old.

Then obviously your high school is known in town and anybody that's traveled to, to compete in athletics, see that there's a new building.

So you have three buildings, varying ages.

Matt: That's certainly the case.

Yes.

So historically speaking, and this was also covered in the previous WEIU show, but the educational system of Teutopolis began in the mid-1800s.

Boys were taught by the Franciscans and girls were taught by the school sisters of Notre Dame.

In 1914, the school district Teutopolis Township High School as a public school district was officially established.

It was recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education in 1919, and then they had their first dedicated building in 1929.

But more recently after the closure of Green Creek, Bishop school, and Lillyville School in the early 2000s, the school district does now have three dedicated buildings.

The pre-K through sixth grade grade school, which is still owned by the church and rented by the public school district, a junior high school for seventh and eighth grade students, which was constructed in 1997, and a high school for ninth through 12th grade students, which has experienced renovations in both 2019 and 2020.

New educational wing in 2019, and then a new dedicated public restrooms and locker room facilities, and gymnasium upgrades in 2020.

So we certainly feel very blessed and very fortunate with the support of our community and a dedicated Board of Education that have been able to make these facility upgrades, to provide the best atmosphere and environment possible for our students.

Rameen: You said, you're now in your second year as superintendent here in Teutopolis.

With three buildings all varying ages, are there any challenges to having a really new building, and a somewhat new building, and then an older building, are there challenges with that varying age ranges across for those three buildings?

Matt: There are certainly challenges with the diversity of buildings and diversity of facilities.

And as a matter of fact, the Board of Education is currently undergoing a district goal setting process, where we're seeking input from our parents and our public constituents.

The hope there is that the Board of Education can outline and establish new goals, and continue to not only upgrade our facilities, but also make appropriate modifications to best meet the needs of our students, and the interest of our students, both in the classroom and beyond.

So financially curriculum facilities, those are all going to be priorities for the Board.

So again, with a great supportive community and a dedicated Board, they've got a really nice plan here to target specific growth and new opportunity.

Rameen: All right, thank you for sharing that overview of the buildings on the outside.

What transpires on the inside and in the community, as we mentioned, Matt was a storyteller for the Teutopolis, This is Our Story Program.

You talked heavily about the academic and extracurricular opportunities, let's dive back into that.

Tell us about the opportunities that the students have here and Teutopolis.

Matt: Yeah.

So for those that may not know, Teutopolis has a outstanding track record, as it relates to both curricular and extracurricular success.

But from an academic perspective in English, language arts, mathematics, and science, the school district outperforms state averages, and is also extremely competitive, both regionally and throughout the downstate area.

Recently in an Illinois poll, Teutopolis School District actually ranked in the top 40 as it relates to academic performance and overall environment for our students.

So that's something we're proud of and it's something that we're going to continue to pursue, because obviously that's what we do.

That's first and foremost, our pursuit is the academic intellectual pursuits for our students and staff.

Of course, we want to support their social emotional needs, and of course we want to give them opportunities beyond the classroom, through athletics and fine arts, but we're here to pursue academic growth and the district has done a phenomenal job both historically, and they continue to do so today.

Rameen: Taped with a number of communities here on City Spotlight, Teutopolis being our 20th community, varying sizes and populations.

Communities such as this size, the schools are probably heighten the importance they are to the community of Teutopolis, the schools are?

Matt: I would say that, that's certainly the case in many of these communities this size to your point, the school tends to be the hub and that's the case for Teutopolis.

There's a great deal of Wooden Shoe pride, not only from our school-aged families, but certainly from our graduates and from other community members.

That pride extends to our athletic arenas and to our instructional arenas, because we've got local businesses too that rely upon the school district.

So we need to make sure that we continue to offer opportunities for things like health occupations, and career and technical trades, welding and Ag.

Those are all important aspects of this community, and they're certainly supported far and wide, and for that we're grateful.

Rameen: All right.

Very good.

Before I ask you about this upcoming school year because we're taping here on July 28th, so the upcoming school year for all school districts in Illinois and across the country are about to start.

I think it's important that we probably dive into how this past school year went.

A very crazy school year for school districts across the state of Illinois, how the things go navigating through COVID-19 this past school year, Matt?

Matt: Yeah, no doubt, the 2020, 2021 academic year was unprecedented, especially following the closure of schools in March of 2020.

I feel really fortunate that Teutopolis schools were able to reopen in-person every day, beginning, full-day instruction and March for every one of our students.

We were one of the earliest schools to have done so.

That's in large part because we had very resilient students, we had supportive families, and we had very dedicated staff to make those things possible.

So it was a difficult year, but it was also a very successful year.

We're excited about what the future holds.

Rameen: What's something that you take from last school year.

It was a successful school year, but what's something that you take from that, that you can help moving forward?

Was it a technological thing?

What's something that you can take from last year, school year to move into this upcoming school year?

Matt: You mentioned the technology and that's certainly an important facet.

The district was well-prepared for the change or the transition to remote learning.

That's because the district invested with community member support through a program called Techtopolis several years ago, that we already had the one-to-one devices in place to be able to make that transition.

But maybe the light that I would gleam from last year is the fact that we really came together, came together as a school districts, came together as a staff, came together as a community.

We did so for our students because we recognize the priority for them to be in-person and together, we were able to accomplish that.

I couldn't be more appreciative of everyone's efforts to make that happen.

Rameen: Everyone working together.

Again, we're taping here late July, folks at home are seeing this episode for the first time early August.

Matt, when does the new school year start?

Matt: So first day of school for students will be Tuesday, August the 17th.

It's just around the corner.

Rameen: Right.

Matt: We're very much looking forward to the start of the new school year.

I know that our dedicated staff has been working hard over the course of the summer attending professional development workshops, improving their craft, also, making preparations and reviewing curriculum materials and updating instructional concepts.

So we're greatly looking forward to the opportunity to welcome our students and welcome our staff back in district.

Rameen: In a recent episode, I was down at Newton talking with Jasper County superintendent, and talking about how preparations for this school year kind of more like normal preparations.

Whereas last year it was an unprecedented... the word you used.

The preparation for last year, you guys were just kind of waiting for things to tell you how you were going to be able to conduct the school year.

Is it nice to have a normal preparation kind-of-like Summer?

Matt: I don't know that I would exactly call it normal.

Rameen: Well somewhat normal.

Matt: We're we're still in a global pandemic.

Rameen: We are.

Yeah.

Matt: As a result, we continue to experience some shift and change.

The nice thing is that Illinois, at the beginning of July adopted the Federal CDC recommendations that are ultimately to afford local school districts, local school Boards and their administrators, more authority and more autonomy in making local decisions based on our local characteristics.

So again for that, we're grateful.

But we are certainly going to try and create a new sense of normal- Rameen: Right.

Matt: ... for our students and for our staff, while simultaneously prioritizing student and staff safety, that's of course at the forefront of all that we do.

We want everybody to be safe so that they can have the best opportunity to continue to learn and grow and we'll certainly do that again this year.

Rameen: I'm sure as the leader of the school district, you appreciate the flexibility of having those things that you can make the decisions for the school district, because every district is in a different boat and has handled the pandemic based on the needs of their own district and community.

So I'm sure you're appreciative of that flexibility that you're able to make what's best for the community.

Matt: Local bodies, especially our locally elected officials and our School Board members need to be able to have that autonomy to make local decisions based on their local characteristics.

It's true, today we're here in the Village Hall.

It's true for our local Village Board, it's also true for our local School Board and our other locally elected county instead officials.

So the idea of a statewide closure or of a national wide closure, we hope that those days are behind us, and that we'll be able to make decisions that are in the best interest for, Teutopolis families and Teutopolis students going forward.

Rameen: All right.

Very good.

Superintendent of the Teutopolis Unit, #50 Schools, Matt Sturgeon.

Matt, thank you for being on City Spotlight.

We appreciate your time.

Matt: Thank you.

Rameen: Appreciate it.

That'll do it for our first time episode here on Teutopolis, here on City Spotlight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

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