Betty Uehling, longtime coordinator for District 88's Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) stands outside Washington Learning Center. Uehling will officially retire on Aug. 11, after 33 years as coordinator.

NEW ULM – In Aug. 1992, Betty Uehling was hired as New Ulm School District 88 Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) coordinator. This August she will officially retire as coordinator after 33 years in the position.

Uehling’s official last day as coordinator is Aug. 11, but said after July 31, she will be mostly out of the office. She will return on Aug. 11 to see if her successor, Ashley Genelin has any final questions.

Though Uehling’s career in New Ulm has lasted over 30 years, her career in childhood education goes back even further.

Uehling said her career in early childhood began during a chance college visit. She followed a friend on a college visit to North Dakota State University in Fargo. It was the only college visit Uehling ever went on. During the visit they walked past the Early Childhood Department and became hooked.

“I remember thinking, this looks so cool,” Uehling said. “I could do that.”

Uehling already had some experience working with young children. In high school she and another friend ran a community education summer camp for kids. The visit to NDSU sealed the deal. She said early childhood education felt right to her. Looking back on an over three decade career, it seems her instincts were correct.

During her time at NDSU, Uehling worked part-time with St. Luke’s Hospital. They had a childcare program. She was able to take classes in the day and work at night. She said it gave her plenty of experience.

After college, Uehling and her husband moved to Sydney, Montana, where she started working at a day care center. Later on she was hired as a middle school resource aid, which she loved.

Later the Uehlings moved to Park Rapids in Minnesota. It was here that Uehling first began working with ECFE programing. ECFE programming was still new to the state when she applied to be a teacher in Park Rapids. The program only had two staff members, herself and coordinator Joyce Stave. The two basically built the community ECFE program from the ground up.

“We made a great team,” Uehling said. “I really appreciate that Joyce let me take a role in building that program. It definitely paid off.”

In the early days, Uehling helped with the paperwork portion of the program. She found out the paperwork aspect of the job was something she actually enjoyed. This proved to be an asset to her later in life.

After two and a half years in Park Rapids, Uehling and her family moved to the Mankato area. She started working for another day care center called Hugs and Kids in addition to other part-time jobs in the area. It was through her position at Hugs and Kids that she learned about another ECFE position in New Ulm. Uehling officially began working in the New Ulm School District in January 1991. At that time she was an ECFE teacher, but after a year and a half she was promoted to coordinator.

Uehling said she initially said “no” to the coordinator position when asked to apply. She had already, taken on another full-time position at a different day care in Mankato. However, through resistance from other district staff, she eventually applied and was hired.

Uehling said part of the reason she was hired as New Ulm’s ECFE coordinator was her previous experience, but also because New Ulm’s program was in a transition process. The district was starting a preschool program in the fall of 1992, but they needed it licensed through the state. Uehling had already assisted with state licensing through her work at Hugs and Kids. The district needed that knowledge to start the new program.

Uehling was hired in 1992, a month before the start of the new school year. She had four weeks to get the new preschool program going. For the first year, it operated out of Marktplatz Mall. It would later move to the Family Learning Center, which would eventually become the Brown County Licensing Bureau.

Uehling said in the three decades she has working in the district, the ECFE programs operated out of several buildings, it was only within the last decade that everything began operating under a single roof at Washington Learning Center.

“I spent a lot of time running and driving to different buildings,” Uehling said.

Uehling said that New Ulm’s ECFE program has three parts. There are child/parent classes, the Eagles preschool and early childhood screening. In her time as coordinator, Uehling and her staff have worked to provide as many opportunities to young families as possible.

“I’ve prided us on being one stop shopping for families with young children,” Uehling said. “If they move to town, we will be the one to call.”

This could mean everything from alerting them to parenting programs or special grant programming. Anything that helps a young family thrive.

Uehling said one of the things she liked about ECFE is it was open to all families.

“No one is forced to enroll,” She said. “If the parents did not think it was worth their time, they would not attend.”

ECFE programming has been a part of Minnesota for 40 years and remains extremely popular with the next generation seeking its benefits.

“I’ve been in the position so long, I am seeing the next generation come back,” Uehling said. “Those who were in my class as babies are back with their own kids, which is so cool!”

There are also teachers in the district who were also in her early ECFE classes.

“It builds a nice relationship with the families,” she said. “It’s an awesome multi-generational program.”

Uehling said the greatest challenge she faced in years as coordinator was budgeting. Much of the ECFE programming requires significant funding.

“That’s why I write a lot of grants,” Uehling said. This goes back to her love of paperwork, but it has also kept New Ulm’s ECFE programs going. The popular Women’s Expo program held every November Jefferson Elementary was designed as a fundraiser for ECFE. Uehling said the Women’s Expo started as way to get around asking families to buy things to fund programming. Instead, ECFE fundraises off vendor fees to have a booth at the expo.

The district has also benefited from angel funding. Some individuals have donated funds to pay for preschool tuition for families that cannot afford it.

“The community has been amazing in supporting everything ECFE,” Uehling said.

Uehling also wanted to credit her staff.

“I cannot say enough amazing things about the staff,” she said. Over the years the ECFE staff has been great about offering creative ideas and problem solving.

“They come up with new ideas and are willing to try new things,” she said. “It has kept the programming fresh over the years.”

Last year, the staff recommended hosting an open house event at WLC to promote ECFE. Uehling said she was not certain if their was interest in the community, but her staff was willing to volunteer their time. In the end, many families attended and learned about new ECFE programming.

Uehling said the decision to retire was difficult but it felt like the right time. She believed the incoming ECFE Coordinator Ashley Genelin is a great fit and could bring new life to the programs. Uehling believes the staff will be able to carry on the programs, but she also has faith in the New Ulm community.

“I’ve always said this is the most amazing community to raise a family,” she said. “It’s our Early Childhood program, but is also our school choice and the amazing parks.”

She said the staff are the true life-blood of the ECFE program.

Uehling said the overall best part of her job was the building of relationships with staff and the different families, but said nothing compares to popping into a classroom and playing in the sensory table with the students, listening to their stories and ideas, capturing a moment in time to share on Facebook so families can see what their children are doing at school, capturing memories in ECFE classes of parents playing with their child.

“I love getting to know the families, I am honored when they reach out to share their struggles as well as their joys.”