Former Dist. 129 Teacher Leaves $110,000 to A+ Foundation

A teacher whose annual salary never topped $10,000 in her quarter-century teaching in District 129 schools has left a gift of more than 10 times that to the A+ Foundation for West Aurora Schools.

Janet Kircher Isler began teaching in Aurora in 1942 at Greenman Elementary School. She also taught at Lincoln, Freeman and Smith and was president of Lincoln School's PTA in 1953, before retiring in 1968, according to a press release from the West Aurora School District, which serves part of Montgomery.

Isler died on Dec. 6, 2010 in La Crosse at the age of 92.

Born in 1918 in La Crosse, her first year of teaching in 1939 in Wisconsin netted her an annual salary of $943. Nearly 30 years later, her salary was less than $9,000 a year, said Mike Chapin, Dist. 129 community relations director.

“That makes it kind of remarkable,” Chapin said. “She was not a wealthy woman when she died, so it’s definitely a statement on her part, that a substantial portion of money she had left she gave to the school district she taught in for so long.”

The Foundation has received the first distribution of the gift, which will be used to establish an endowment fund under the A+ Foundation in Isler's name.

“With this gift to her beloved school district, Janet Kircher Isler will now contribute to the enrichment of education of District 129 children for generations to come,” Frank Voris, president of the A+ Foundation Board of Directors, said in a press release. “Many of those students who will benefit, fittingly, are the descendants of the children she herself taught.”

Chapin said Isler expressed an interest that the money be used to augment the elementary school curriculums, particularly United States and World Geography.

“So we indeed will be looking for projects in that area to fund with the money,” he said.

Besides teaching, Isler had an active social life, as a sports enthusiast and a bowler on several championship teams in Aurora, as well as singing in the choir at the New England Congregational Church in Aurora.

Chapin said perusing Isler’s high school yearbook reveals a woman who was a member of a social committee planing mixers and parties for the school — “not unlike lesson planning and managing a second grade classroom” — as well as a participant on some of the school’s sports teams. “I imagine that was perfect for running around with those second-graders,” he said.

“I thought it was fascinating that when you go backwards in time, there she is practicing what she turned out to be for decades afterwards,” Chapin said.