Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Pages 1 & 16

As anyone involved in the Diagonal school district probably knows, the high school and middle school staff will be suffering the loss of a valued member of their team. Larry TEPLY, high school and middle school principal and athletics director will be retiring this June after 34 years of service.

Becoming a principal may not have been his initial intention when he began to plan his career, but onec an get a sense of how much he has enjoyed where life has taken him simply by talking to him.

TEPLY began his school career in Diagonal, attending his first years there. He continued at Diagonal part of the way through kindergarten before his family moved to Oskalooska, IA for nine years. After that, he returned to Diagonal at the tail end of his sophomore year to complete high school and graduate.

TEPLY had intended to go into accounting, which he had majored in at Southwestern Community College and Northwest Missouri State University. But fate had other plans, leading him to change his mind and pursue a profession in teaching instead.

He returned to Diagonal and received a position as a high school business and special education teacher as well as a basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball coach. He ended up coaching or serving as athletic director for much of the time he spent at Diagonal.

Even when he first started his teaching job, he was already aiming for the position of principal. The current principal at the time seemed like he would be leaving soon, so TEPLY began to lay the ground work for replacing him by establishing himself in the school district.

He realized fairly quickly that he had chosen the right job and planned to be in it for the long haul from the get go.

"I'm not sure I thought I'd be in Diagonal for 34 years [when I started], though," TEPLY remarked.

During the time that he spent as a teacher, TEPLY took note of a number of things that he hoped to see improved upon when he was in a position to do so.

"I wanted to see test scores improve, and maintain the number of students going to college and ensure that they [Page 16] would be successful there," TEPLY said.

Also, there was talk at one time of shutting down Diagonal Community school and simply incorporating the students into another area school, but TEPLY did not want to see that happen. Therefore he made it his goal to maintain the stability of the school, a goal that he has accomplished admirably, along with the other two goals that he set for himself.

Another thing that TEPLY feels has changed for the better during his career is the overall atmosphere of the school.

"It's become a better place for learning and activities," TEPLY noted. "I think we've really achieved a family atmospherehere."

Though the chance to make a positive difference in the lives of Diagonal's students was what drew TEPLY to the job, it was the people around him that made it truly enjoyable and rewarding.

"My favorite part of being a principal was being able to work with the students and teachers," TEPLY said. "We just had so many great people here."

His students are also responsible for some of his favorite memories over the years he's spent as principal. He loved watching Diagonal's graduates walk across the stage each year to accept their diplomas, brimming with hope and excitement for their future plans.

"I'm glad to have had even some small part in it," TEPLY stated.

Though TEPLY has accomplished a lot during his career as a principal, he still sees room for improvement in the school and he hopes to see his predecessor step up to the challenge.

"I'd like to see some more improvements made with the new core curriculum," TEPLY said. "We need to do more work on it, but we haven't gotten very far yet."

This may be a tall order, but TEPLY has the following words of wisdom to offer his predecessor to help them get the job done: "Use the people we have around us. We have so many great ones: students, teachers, and board. They have alot to offer, listen to what they have to say and use that as your basis," he said.

TEPLY's final official day as principal at Diagonal Community school will be June 30. He isn't sure yet how he will fill all his newfound free time after retiring, but he looks forward to having more time to spend with his grandchildren in Lake City and more time of the golf course. It will surely be difficult for the staff and students whom TEPLY has worked with all these years to forget him, especially when he has done so many things for the school, but the one thing in particular that TEPLY hopes they will remember about him when he is gone -- "That I led by example; there was no job that was too big or too small for me."

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2012