By Jill Fennema –

Marlys Schuller has been a school teacher for 30 years. She came to Edgerton Christian in 2009 after teaching at Leota Christian for 16 years and Doon Christian for two years. After three decades of instruction, she is ready to retire. 

Marlys has taught in every grade at the elementary level throughout her years of teaching. Primarily, she has worked with 5th through 8th grade. 

Marlys grew up around New Holland, South Dakota. She was born a Zylstra – the oldest of 12 children! “That in itself was all about teaching, nurturing, and caring,” she said. She also assisted Sunday School teachers as a teenager and learned about teaching through them. 

She graduated from Dordt College in 1976 with a degree in education and certification to teach kindergarten through the 9th grade. While she was in college, she also worked as a nursing assistant at the Corsica Good Samaritan home and the Sioux Center hospital, and later at Edgebrook.  

Right after college, she was hired to teach first and second grades at Doon Christian School in Doon, Iowa. Her husband Mike went back to college. When he graduated, he found a job at Mouw’s Feed and Grain of Leota and the couple soon found themselves living near Leota. Marlys took a teaching job at Leota Christian School, where she was until 2009, when the school closed. 

At that time, she joined the staff at Edgerton Christian Elementary School. When her children were little, she taught preschool and took care of other children in her home. She and Mike have four grown children: Jennifer, Rebecca, Matthew, and Elliott.

To Marlys, one of the biggest challenges for her was balancing the expectation of her teaching profession with those of her role as a parent to her own children. Regardless of whether she was at home or in the classroom, Marlys saw her role as that of a teacher. She reminds her students, “You are a teacher everyday– in all you say and do.  Someone is always watching you or reflecting your actions, speech, or thoughts. So you are a teacher as well.”

After thirty years of teaching, the memories that will stick with Marlys are those times when her students showed integrity. “Those times impressed me back then, and they do now,” she said. Marlys served as a member of the Leota Rescue Squad for 13 years. Sometimes her pager would go off during the school day and she would have to leave the school room to go help a neighbor with an emergency. 

“The students would know I had to leave,” she recalls, “But they kept class going until another teacher or principal popped in to help out.” She had it happened that a student took charge and started the class for her when she was detained in the hallway. “It’s that goodness of their hearts and the sense of responsibility students can exhibit that I love to see,” she added.