Kosman retires after 24 years as Trinity Lutheran School principal
Paul Kosman arrived in Sturgis in 1998, hired as the principal at Trinity Lutheran School. He is now retiring 24 years later.
Kosman's wife, Janene, retired recently and their three sons are grown and scattered. As a couple, they love biking and have some pedaling adventures planned — challenges they want to conquer before getting older.
They love their sons who they plan to visit in other states and the youngest at a university in Germany.
But Kosman loved his time at the helm of Trinity Lutheran. It always felt like his calling in life.
“Enrollment is always a rollercoaster, but we always had strong support from the congregation,” he said. “It was never a question if we were going to continue.”
Their lowest enrollment was 73 students and the highest was 142 in 2019-20.
In 2021-22 they had 132 students. Students who are prepared for public school after graduating from eighth grade.
“They are more than ready to take on high school and beyond,” he said
Kosman gets compliments from Sturgis Public Schools staff on the quality of Trinity students — they are polite, well-behaved and prepared.
His biggest educational challenge was COVID, Kosman said. Realizing the shutdown was inevitable, they recorded the upcoming all-school musical at the Sturges-Young stage just days before the shutdown. Each student got a copy.
All grades were involved and had been working on it since Christmas break, he said. To not perform the show would have been heartbreaking all around.
So families got the next best thing — a DVD.
Kosman and the staff also did the next best thing to being in-person. Teachers got school work packets together and delivered to students by Tuesday of the first week of the shutdown. Every Tuesday after, parents picked up the packets at the school.
When students came back in the fall of 2020 they did not show “COVID regression,” he said. “Test scores were where we expected them to be.”
But the 2020-21 school year was also a challenge.
“With masks and quarantines it didn’t seem like school,” Kosman said. “It was something we never prepared for.”
As he looks in the rearview mirror, Kosman said he’ll especially miss the Trinity staff.
“I’ve been here 24 years and there are still three teachers who have been here longer than I have,” he said. “And they are great teachers. It’s been a great group of people to work with — committed to the school and the students. It made my job a lot easier.”
When he arrived Kosman was impressed with student test scores. He still is — students continue to test a half- to one-grade above grade level.
“That’s really a testament to the teachers and to the students and their families,” Kosman said.
And while the Kosmans are biking, attending Chicago Cubs games and globe trotting, Jack Lustila, a retired Lutheran administrator, will be the interim principal in the fall.
To the students he said, "Thanks for being great students."
And when they see him around town, please identify themselves.
“I will look the same, but they will not,” Kosman said.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Kosman retires after 24 years as Trinity Lutheran School principal
