A+ TEACHER: Kathalee Cole: Lutie High School • Ag, counselor, cheer coach, FFA and more...

Lutie High School educator Kathalee Cole wears about as many hats as an educator can: high school agriculture teacher, pre-K through 12 grade school counselor, FFA adviser, high school cheerleading coach, academic testing coordinator, homeless student liaison, English language learning (ELL) coordinator, prom planner, senior class sponsor, parent of last year’s Lutie salutatorian and current foster parent to a Lutie High School senior.

Cole says her days start well before sunrise and usually last long into the evening. 

“If there is one thing I’d like people to know, it’s that teaching isn’t a 9-to-5, summers-off kind of job. Some people think we only work nine months out of the year. But, no, it’s not really like that. If I were to stop and count up my hours. This week alone… gosh…,” she told the Times recently, carefully counting up more than 60 hours she’d already spent at the school that week. “And we have a ball game tomorrow night.”

But the heavy workload, sometimes nearly twice that of a regular full-time job, doesn’t leave her bitter. 

“You know, the thing is, when you teach in a small school, you have to wear many hats. And if you’re not willing to do that, teaching in a small school probably isn’t for you. But if you want to make a difference in kids’ lives, really make a difference, you can do that here. I love my job,” she said.

Lutie principal Amy Lane and superintendent Scot Young agree that Cole is making a difference on the students in the district. 

“Kathalee Cole is an amazing person. Her whole purpose in life is to see students succeed. She wakes up each morning with a goal to inspire those around her,” Lane said. “And she does just that. Kathalee gives 110 percent of her time and energy to the students at Lutie. She’s genuinely cares about them and their future.”

“She is the type of employee that can see a need or problem and step up on her own to fix it. Besides being a teacher, a counselor and a cheer coach, she is a giver with a heart as big as Missouri. They don’t give those away when you graduate from college. She had that already,” Young said. 

‘It’s in my blood’

Cole began teaching at Lutie three and a half years ago, and she says it is the school she wants to stay at until she retires. 

“Simply put, this is home for me,” she said. “I hope to always teach here.”

The road that led her to the small school in Theodosia, which has an average enrollment of 150 students in pre-K through 12th grade, was a long and twisted one. Cole says during her senior year of college, as she was finishing her bachelor’s degree in ag business and economics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, she was recruited by a large-scale hog corporation.

“I worked for them right after I graduated. I started out as assistant manager and moved up to manager in a year and a half,” she said. “I worked for two different hog companies and managed two 20,000-head continuous nurseries.”

Cole said she loved her job, but she soon found her heart pulling her in another direction. 

“I decided I wanted to go back to school to work on my master’s [degree] in agriculture education,” she said. “It’s in my blood. Dad was an ag teacher. From the time he graduated college, that’s all he did, taught ag. He taught for 38 years before he retired. My mom taught for two years. My sister currently teaches ag in the state of Arkansas, and she’s on her 27th year. The only one who hasn’t gone to school to be an ag teacher is my brother. It’s just a family thing,” she said. 

“I grew up participating in FFA and 4H, so I know the impact ag and FFA can have. It’s an organization that can reach kids, and it’s an organization for all kids.”

Teacher, child sex abuse investigator and child support enforcer

Cole earned her master’s degree in agriculture education from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and accepted her first teaching assignment for the 2001-2002 school year at Great River Technical School in “deep southern” Arkansas. She served as the vo-tech school’s agriculture teacher. 

“It was more of an SAE co-op program, so kids would come in, and I would have them in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then on Wednesdays and Fridays they’d be out working at their assigned jobs, and I’d visit with them there,” she said. “I actually only had them in class maybe four hours a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the rest of the time they were out working. It worked well.”

In February of that school year, Cole’s son William was born. 

She and William moved to Hughes, Arkansas, where she taught at the Hughes School District for two years. The school closed in 2004 due to declining enrollment, leaving Cole without a job.

“That’s when I moved back to Oklahoma. Grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and William had been diagnosed with high-functioning autism. So I took a job there in a drug and alcohol treatment facility, working nights. That way I could take William to his therapies… his speech therapy, occupational therapy, all of those.”

After some time at the facility, Cole transitioned to a career with Child Protective Services. 

“I was their sex abuse investigator, and I became very proficient in my job. But it was a hard job, and after a year and a half, I was done,” she said. “You know, you’re supposed to leave that stuff at the door, but it’s hard. How do you go home at night and go on with your evening knowing what you’ve just heard from this kid, and this kid, and this kid?”

In 2008 Cole decided to move to West Virginia, where she worked for the state’s child support enforcement agency. 

“I was a manager, and I supervised 12 employees. We got cases ready for attorneys to take to court to set child support on, and then we also collected the child support,” she said. “We did all the dirty work that’s involved with that process.”

A move back to teaching

In 2015, she moved back to Missouri and got back to her passion - teaching. She accepted a position at Montrose School District, and taught there for two years. 

“I loved the school. I loved my kids, and I’m still in contact with my kids who I had there,” she said. But it soon became apparent that she and the school’s administration were on different pages about the position. 

“So I made up my mind to leave. I knew I wasn’t going back for a third year there, and I started looking online for another position,” she said. “That’s when I saw the ag position [at Lutie] was open. And I knew where that was because my dad used to be the ag teacher at Hartville many years ago. So I knew the general area.”

Cole submitted her resume to superintendent Scot Young, who gave her a call and set up a time for an interview. 

“I came down, and it was the most relaxed job interview I’ve ever had in my life,” she said. “I mean, we sat in his office and talked for an hour about anything and everything. We went and looked at the shop, and then went and looked at the greenhouse. And I was sold. A week later, he called and offered me the job, and I’ve been here ever since – and absolutely love it.”

Cole said she is confident that she’ll stay at Lutie for the rest of her career, “unless they fire me,” she said, jokingly. “As a teacher, you always look for that school that makes you feel like you’re home. And that’s here for me. I have no intention of going anywhere else.”

Cole says a big part of her happiness in the district centers on the administration at the school, a team of superintendent Scot Young and principal Amy Lane.

“As far as bosses go, I honestly have two of the best. I cannot complain about either one of them. They give me free rein, because I’m not your traditional teacher. I’m not the type to order kids to come in, sit down and then I’m going to lecture them. I’m more about, ‘Let’s go to the greenhouse. Let’s go to the shop. Let’s talk about food science and make something.’ In fact, next week we’re making beef jerky in that class.”

A growing program

Cole says she’s been proud of the continued growth in her years at the school.

“We’ve got the shop down there and the greenhouse out back, and all kinds of new toys,” she said. “We have our metal CNC machine, which we got two years ago on an enhancement grant, and we just got our wood CNC machine too, also with an enhancement grant,” Cole said, referring to “computer numerical control” machines that allow written computer code controls to cut and manufacture different wood and metal pieces. “We’ve also got a new tractor and all kinds of implements and a trailer to go with that. So we’re building the program little by little.”

The students have also been advancing through in the FFA program, Cole says. 

“We did have two students, William [Cole] and Jon [Pettit], who both got their state degrees, and both ended up winning and going on to state in their proficiency areas. And this year we have an area officer, Morgan Smith. So, from where we started four years ago and where we are now, we’ve made huge strides.”

Cole says one of her biggest teaching strategies is to push her students beyond what they’re used to doing. 

“I . . . push them outside of their comfort zone, and I do that to prepare them for the world. What better way to do that than giving speeches, or attending leadership workshops, learning to keep record books to help with finances. I do it because I feel like I’m truly making a difference in kids’ lives,” she said. “I always make my kids do a speech. They will stand in front of this classroom, and that may be the only speech they ever give in their life, but they are going to do it. Once they get over that fear, they’re good. The first year I was here, I couldn’t get anyone to give a speech. This year, we started the list today, and I have 12 kids wanting to give speeches. We’re making strides, we’re making headway, and kids are coming out of their shells.”

Small classes, big impact

Cole says one of  the biggest benefits to working at a small school like Lutie is the reduced class sizes. She says her biggest class, exploratory ag, has 12 students enrolled. Her smallest class, ag science II, has only six students enrolled. 

“I think I have half of the high school student populations in my ag classes in one way or another,” she said. “I love the small school setting. I know a lot of teachers, they like bigger schools. They like bigger classes. I’m good with 10 students in a shop class, because you can actually do a lot with 10 in a shop class. So it makes it nice.”

Between the more individualized learning environment, the flexibility to teach what and how she wants and the impact that FFA and agriculture make on a student, Cole says she really feels like students are becoming better prepared for their futures.

“People understand what the [FFA] organization is about, for the most part, but I don’t think people truly understand everything it has to offer, as far as where it can take these kids and what it can do. I’m still in contact with people from whenever I was in high school, and I met them through FFA. CEOs and the number of congressman that were actually members of FFA – it takes you places. The public speaking skills that you get out of it, the interpersonal communication skills that they get out of it are huge.”

While there are many positives and happy times, Cole says the job comes with its fair share of challenges too.

“The issues we deal with as teachers, it’s not just that kids come in and aren’t doing their work. Their outside lives impact how they learn in the classroom. If something has happened to them at home, it can change their whole day – their whole life. It impacts everything they do. And that can impact the whole classroom,” she said. “Kids and their support systems have really changed since I started teaching. In 2002, parents were really involved in what their kids were doing. Unfortunately now, some students’ support is few and far between outside of school. Back then cell phones weren’t something that everyone had. Now, it’s a distraction a lot of times for kids and parents alike.”

Mentor to counselor

In June 2020, the former Lutie counselor let Young know that she was moving to another district.

“I just so happened to be sitting in the office, and [Mr. Young] looked at me and said, ‘You want to be counselor?’ I just said, ‘Um….’ I thought he was joking at first,” Cole said. “Then he said, ‘You already know what’s going on with these kids. You might as well take on that role. I told him I don’t want to give up my ag, and he said I wouldn’t have to. So, here we are.”

The school worked out a way for Cole to teach full time and also be employed part-time as the counselor.

“The way I see it, and kids will tell you this too, I’m not just their teacher. I’m their teacher. I’m their mentor. I’m like their second mother. I stay on them: ‘Do you have this work done? Do you have that work done?’ It’s odd because the counselor position kind of comes together with what I was already doing. I was already talking to them about this stuff. So I kind of fell into that role, but it was kind of already happening,” she said.

‘A monster that I didn’t see coming’

Cole, along with most educators in the world, had her classroom turned upside down early last year when covid hit the Ozarks. In March 2020, Lutie School announced that it would stop in-person classes for the remainder of the semester. 

The teachers worked diligently preparing paper packets of work and sending them home with students each week. Then they followed up by phone to make sure everything was going well. This year, the district has a better game plan. Students have been able to stay in class for most of this school year.

“We are taking every single precaution we can to keep it from happening again. Teachers have to wear masks. Kids are having to wear masks in the hallway. We wear them in the classroom. The desks are 6 feet apart,” Cole said. “Being the counselor, I’m able to keep class numbers down to minimal size. It affected the sports season, because we’re only allowing so many people in the gym, and that’s limited only to people that our players give tickets to. The guests have to wear a mask. They have to have their temperature taken when they come in. They are assigned a row that they get to sit on. Players have to wear a mask when they’re sitting on the bench. Cheerleaders have to wear a mask when they’re on the bench. Only one kid to a seat on the bus, and everybody wears their masks the entire time we’re on the bus.”

Cole said she and the principal patrol the gym during games to ensure that players, students and attendees are properly following the rules. 

“We have to walk around the gym and tell people to pull their masks up, or that they need to space 6 feet apart. I told Mr. Young I needed one of those little sheriff’s badges and inscribe on it ‘mask police.’ Because that’s unfortunately what we have  to do,” she said.

As far as FFA goes, most events were canceled last year or held virtually. 

“I am 46 years old, and in the 46 years I’ve been alive, I’ve never missed a national convention,” she said. “But last year, I did. I mean, we did it virtually, but it’s not the same. Nowhere near the same. It was a very weird feeling. That week the kids kept asking why I was in such a bad mood, and I told them I was supposed to be in Indianapolis then. I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

This school year, Cole says the organization has found ways to start to transition back to covid-responsible in-person gatherings. 

“When I started teaching in 2002, never in a million years did I think this would be something I’d see in my lifetime. I mean, I have to factor disposable masks and hand sanitizer into my personal teacher’s budget each month. I could never have imagined it. Covid has definitely been a monster that I didn’t see coming, but at the same time, it’s been a very good learning experience for the kids,” she said. “It’s our job to prepare them for the future, and if the future and their new norm is this, it’s been a great lesson in how to adapt and overcome challenges.”

A parent and a foster parent

Cole’s son, William, graduated last May as salutatorian of the graduating class. He now works with her parents on a large farm in northern Missouri. But Cole’s home isn’t empty.

In January 2020, Cole said her life took yet another unexpected turn. A single phone call led her into the life of being a foster parent of a graduating senior.

“He’s actually a young man that my first year here, I had him in ag class as a freshman. And he used to be in so much trouble. If it wasn’t one thing, then it was another. During his sophomore year, him and William became friends, and he’d come over to the house to play video games with William on the weekends,” she said.

Cole said the boy quit school and ran away from home during the spring semester of his 10th grade year. 

“And then a couple years later I got a call. It was the day after Christmas [in 2019], and he was in tears over the phone. I had told him when he was a sophomore and he had been coming over to the house and hanging out that if he ever needed a place to stay, to just call. And so he did. He called. We’ve got all his issues working out. And now, he’s set to graduate this year. A/B student, honor roll, on track to be valedictorian. It makes me so proud,” she said.

Her foster son and the many other students she has in her class will forever be changed by their time in Ms. Cole’s classroom. 

“I do it because I feel like I’m truly making a difference in kids’ lives,” she said. “And there aren’t many things out there that let you give yourself in that way to the future.”