Crawford teacher wins statewide award

This year’s recipient is Catie Limbach, the kindergarten teacher in Crawford. Last year’s recipient was Sherry Retzlaff, a middle school math teacher and guidance counselor in Rushville.

Limbach is the second area teacher to be honored since school resumed two weeks ago. Just a week earlier, Cindy Lanik, a middle school teacher at Hemingford, was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as Nebraska’s American Star of Teaching for 2006.

All three of the teachers are graduates of Chadron State College.

The Wal-Mart award that Chadron store manager Sean McKuen presented to Limbach includes a $10,000 educational grant for use by the Crawford schools, a Teacher of the Year certificate, a personalized tote bag, a crystal apple trophy and personalized business cards.

All the Crawford students and faculty as well as many community members were present for the awards ceremony. Mayor Paul Shimek read a proclamation declaring Aug. 29 as Catie Limbach Day, Elementary Principal Kathy Griesse gave her a dozen roses and Superintendent of Schools Merrill Nelsen offered congratulations and thanked her for her hard work and dedication.

Two of Limbach’s collegues, Kay Buecker, who teaches first grade, and Laurie Miller, who teaches the state-funded preschool program that Limbach led the way in establishing last spring, submitted the nomination.

Limbach left her kindergarten position to launch the preschool program last January, then returned to teaching kindergarten this fall.

Buecker said Limbach devoted at least half of her Christmas vacation to preparing for the new program.

“With her husband’s help, she converted a storage room into an attractive and inviting preschool room,” said Buecker. “They donated a lot of the materials and furnishings. Catie is so dedicated and caring. The students she has taught in kindergarten are always so well prepared when they come to my room.”

Limbach, 43, was born in Crawford shortly after her parents, Dan and Alice Fisher, moved to Crawford. She attended kindergarten in the same room where she has taught since 1992.

Her mother who lives in Georgetown, Texas, also taught kindergarten in that room for a year. Her father was president of the Crawford State Bank before the couple moved to Grand Island in 1982. He served in the Nebraska Legislature four years in the mid-1990s. He died in 2004.

The award recipient was a volleyball player, member of the speech team, a cheerleader and an honor student at Crawford High School, graduating in 1981. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln one year before transferring to Chadron State. She graduated in 1985.

She taught kindergarten in Crawford for a year, but was a victim of reduction in force action. She later taught fifth and sixth grade in Crawford for a year and at the rural school four miles south of Crawford for two years before she was hired again as the kindergarten teacher in Crawford.

Both of her daughters, Whitney and Jocelyn, were her students. “I feel my main job is to encourage the children I teach to love school,” she said.

The Crawford elementary principal, Kathy Griesse, said Limbach does her job well. “She is an exceptional early childhood educator,” Giesse said. “It’s a privilege to work with her. She gets the students off to a great start and the rest of our very capable staff takes them from there.”

Limbach is president of the Crawford High Booster Club, the keyboard accompanist at the Catholic Church and a member of the Crawford Planning Commission, the Chadron Hospital Board and PEO. She has presented High/Scope Training at the Nebraska Kindergarten Conference several times.

Limbach’s husband, John, is also a Crawford native. He is an engineer for the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad.