Sparta — Beth Lehner is the new assistant principal at Appleview Elementary. SNN gets to know her in this edition of Meet Your Administrator.
Beth Lehner, who started her teaching career at Appleview in 2005, is one of two new assistant principals at the elementary level.
Other positions you have held in education:
- Third-grade teacher, Appleview Elementary
- Fifth-grade teacher, Appleview Elementary
- Fourth-grade teacher, Appleview Elementary
How about jobs outside education? “I grew up in a farm family, so growing up, we had vegetables, so before I went off to college, that was my job. Then I worked at the bookstore in college.”
Education/degrees: Bachelor’s degree in Group Science Chemistry, Grand Valley State University; master’s in Educational Leadership, GVSU
Family: She and her husband, Jonathan, married 19 years, have two children.
Hobbies/Interests: “I love family. Being from a big family, I love family time,” she said, noting that she is the youngest of eight children. Besides spending time with her kids, Lehner also enjoys tennis, kayaking, hiking and being outside.
‘His heart and his empathy for others was like nothing else I’d ever seen’
– Assistant Principal Beth Lehner, on former 8-year-old student
What kind of kid were you at the age of students at this school? Lehner remembers that in fourth grade, she enjoyed science and math and loved hanging out with her friends. She was also a Girl Scout, and in fifth grade started playing clarinet in the band.
The biggest lesson you have learned from students: “I had a student last year that, his heart and his empathy for others was like nothing else I’d ever seen. It just made me learn that as crazy as life can get, and as busy as our days can be, to always remember what’s important and have that empathy and that care for other people. … But as an 8-year-old, the amount of thought he put into others and how they were doing and feeling stood out to me, and I was like, ‘Wow, I have something to learn from that one.’”
If I could go back to school I would go to grade … Senior year. “I would take time to enjoy everything, maybe pause a little bit more and enjoy the moment instead of worrying about what’s coming next.”
