DEWITT - Since 2013, Tri County Public Schools has been led by Superintendent Randy Schlueter. He now is set to retire after 48 years in education.

Schlueter plans to travel, and spend more time with his grand kids, while also remaining active in education. Schlueter grew up in Wisner and has bounced around Nebraska taking several different education jobs along the way. He made his way to southeast Nebraska in the late 1990’s, where he was an assistant principal and principal at the middle school. However, his passion for education came from a young age, at a one-room school house in Wisner.

“You had first grade through eighth grade in the entire building,” Schlueter said. “I just watched the lady who was in charge of all the grades, watched how she interacted with all the kids, moved the kids around, and I just though I’d enjoy doing something like that.”

Schlueter is departing from Tri County at a time in which he feels confident in the schools future and what he’s been able to contribute.

“We struggled a bit with enrollment and finances, but I think we’re on a really solid foundation in terms of enrollment in our building, a slid foundation financially, and the building is in solid shape,” Schlueter said. “It’s 55-56 years old and it’s still in solid shape, we’ve updated a lot.”

One of the most difficult times in Schlueter’s career came in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and changed education as we once knew it around the country -- and that included Tri County. Schlueter explained why remote learning was so difficult.

“Because it wasn’t successful,” Schlueter said. “No matter how you want to look at it, when we closed school in March of 2020, we essentially closed down the whole school year at that time. We tried to do remote learning, and to some extent students were engaged, but we knew when students would come back in fall of 2020, we’d need to spend some time on review.”

Now with more time on his hands, Schlueter is looking forward to doing things for himself, but he plans to stay in education too.

“I’m scheduled to work with Peru State, Wayne State, and UNL to supervise student teachers, so I’ll be doing that multiple times a week,” Schlueter said. “Have some plans to spend time with grand kids, be more involved in their lives, and have some volunteer opportunities.”

Schlueter's official last day is June 30.