It Happened in Crawford County: Scott Tinnermeier's journey to a new career and a family
Editor's note: This is the second of two parts of a column about Scott Tinnermeier. Part one about his journey from Iowa to Ohio was published Feb. 12.
Several years after he first began serving as youth pastor at Peace Lutheran in Galion, Scott Tinnermeier started thinking about full-time teaching. His future wife, Julie Tracht — who was teaching English at Bucyrus High School — helped Scott with his resume. The principal at Carlisle Elementary Bucyrus offered Scott a job as a fourth to fifth grade multi-grade teacher working with Becky Gottfried, an intervention specialist.
But the question he first had to ask himself was "Stay in Ohio and teach, or go back to Iowa?" He had interviews in Iowa; they didn’t work out, so he packed up all his teaching supplies, moved to Ohio and was ready to teach.
While teaching in the same district, Scott and Julie did service projects with their students together — one by delivering food, another where Julie’s students came and taught Scott’s kids about kindness to others. They got to know each other better and eventually Scott came to his senses on MLK Day in 2000 at the Faith Ranch Retreat — the place where he heard an audible voice saying you’d marry that girl someday. They married in July 2001 at Grace Point in Galion. He also took a position as their youth director, evenings and weekends.
Scott continued to teach fourth grade at Carlisle — social studies and English — until Bucyrus Elementary came together in the new building. Meanwhile, Julie took a leave to write two devotional books for women. She then worked part time at North Central State as a writing adjunct professor.
The Tinnermeiers moved across town in 2004 and started thinking about having a family, then finally made the decision to adopt. They went through the lengthy process and decided upon getting a child from Guatemala. The country had a quick turnaround to receive a child, and the children were also placed in foster care instead of putting them in an orphanage. It was for these reasons why they choose this route.
Scott and Julie received a call saying "their child was born" and they continued on with the process of adoption which was to take six months. Then, Guatemala, because of recent corruption with adoptions, decided to close down their adoption process and restructure their child welfare program. The 10-step process became 34 steps for the Tinnermeirs. They ended up not able to get their son until just before his 2nd birthday. They had taken a trip for his first Christmas to meet him, and when they arrived, he reached out to Julie the very first thing. The foster mom said “wow, he never goes to anyone.” They got to spend a weekend bonding with him at the hotel, and they also toured the country before they left to better understand his culture.
While there, Scott went for food at McDonald's. He didn’t speak Spanish, but he heard someone calling his name, Mr. Tinnermeier, in English. Who could know him in Guatemala? Who was calling his name? It was their lawyer, and she came to say their case was OK'd in court and it would be just a couple more months. That ended up being another nine months. Finally, just before Luke’s second birthday, they got a call to pick up their son and bring him back to the U.S. He was born in November 2006, and they got him October 2008. They call it his “gotcha day” and celebrate that day as well as his birthday. It was a big transition to now have a toddler, but it was wonderful to start a family and they felt blessed beyond measure with their new son. They were also lucky his foster home played English programs on TV, so he understood some of the language which he soaked up and quickly learned.
Scott continued teaching at Bucyrus Elementary for a total of 20 years. He also got his master’s degree in the art of teaching from Marygrove College in Detroit 2007. He stopped the youth ministry but continues to volunteer at church, working with kid’s ministry and playing bass guitar in the worship band. Julie stayed home to raise their son, Luke, and currently works as a Silver Sneaker’s Instructor at the Galion Y.
In 2019, Scott felt his teaching years were ready to be done early, and Julie encouraged him to apply to another school. He said, “Not unless it’s closer to Galion, same grade, and same subject." Julie helped send out the resume in the summer of 2019. Scott then received a call from Superintendent Todd Martin from Colonel Crawford saying he had a fourth grade position open for English and social studies and to come for an interview. Following that call and job offer, Julie showed Scott her prayer journal dated April 2019. It read “open a door for Scott to teach at Colonel Crawford.” God was listening, it seemed like an answer to prayer. Scott felt it was the "reset button" he needed, and he is enjoying teaching again.
Scott has been on a journey of many paths interacting with many people that have impacted his life as much as he hopes he has impacted their lives. As the Lord continues to direct his life journey, he finds joy in it, continues to pray for it and is thankful for all of it which stems from his life verse from the Holy Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Scott Tinnermeier finds a new career and family in Crawford County
