Reception honors five retiring Prairie View staff members

Five retiring Prairie View staff members were honored at a reception at the La Cygne Library on Wednesday, May 21. They are, from left, Teresa Doty, Jo Wittry, Melisa Bertz, Annette Viner and Kyle Littrell. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

LA CYGNE – Colleagues and friends took time on Wednesday, May 21, to wish five departing Prairie View USD 362 teachers and staff members well in their retirement. Those honored at the reception at the La Cygne Library were Annette Viner, Jo Witty, Melisa Bertz, Kyle Littrell and Teresa Doty.

Teresa Doty

While Teresa Doty didn’t have the recognition afforded her fellow retirees, they would likely deem her job as very important. Doty was payroll clerk who was behind cutting the checks for all employees. She was also the board of education’s treasurer. Before she was hired at Prairie View in March 2019, her work experience included advertising and marketing. She said she plans to take time, enjoy life and not have to subject herself to the stress of the daily grind.

Melisa Bertz

Melisa Bertz is a Prairie View graduate (class of ’85) who grew up on a farm south of Parker where her parents, Larry and Mary Lou Kinder, still reside. She is leaving after serving as an agricultural educator at Prairie View High School. She returned to her alma mater seven years ago after teaching ag at Higginsville, Mo., for 20 years and at Peabody, Kan., before that.

“I’m definitely a Linn County FFA and 4-H product,” she said. “That was my love and I wanted to come back.”

So when a PVHS ag teacher left, she saw the opportunity to end her teaching career at the school where she got her start. With a son who manages the family farm in Missouri and a daughter who now lives in Georgia, Bertz said she and her husband, Harold, plan to travel, work their cattle here and garden.

Kyle Littrell

Kyle Littrell is a Louisburg native who has served as head football and track coach as well as weightlifting instructor and coach. He got his start teaching 32 years ago as a teacher and coach at Shawnee Mission South. After a three-year stint in Drexel, Mo., a year at Osawatomie High School and a decade at his alma mater, Louisburg.

His career at Prairie View has spanned eight years, and during that time the Buffalos have been back-to-back district football champions and some members of the PVHS track team have  earned the title of state champion in their events . Like so many other Kansas teachers and coaches who reach retirement points in this state, he will be heading east of the state line to coach again at Drexel, Mo.

Jo Wittry

Jo Wittry has been a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at La Cygne Elementary School for 17 years. Before coming to teach at La Cygne, she taught at Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic School in Wea north of Louisburg. She also taught in the Blue Valley school district, which is mostly in the southeast corner of Johnson County.

Wittry said she plans to spend a lot of time with her grandchildren, travel, read, tend her garden and take in some concerts. Her favorite band? The SteelDrivers, a bluegrass band based out of Nashville.

Annette Viner

The sociological definition of span of a generation is 15 years. If that’s the case, Annette Viner has been working on teaching music to her third generation of elementary school students in the Prairie View district. Her career with the district has spanned 35 years.

Initially hired to teach music to students kindergarten through high school, Viner settled into teaching only elementary students in La Cygne, Parker and Fontana schools (before Fontana was shut down a little over 20 years ago). Before coming to the Prairie View district Viner, a graduate of Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, taught in Palco, Kan., for seven years.