June 6, 2022 – West Bend, WI – A couple of familiar faces at St. Frances Cabrini School in West Bend, WI are retiring at the end of the school year. Mrs. Cathy Fichtner has been with the school in a number of capacities since 2002 and Mrs. Patti Kraemer, a K4 teacher, is moving on after nearly 40 years at Cabrini.
“I started in 1982 and I’ve been here 40 years but I took one year off because I had a third child,” said Kraemer.
When Kraemer started Carol Bears was principal followed by Janice Dusky, Mark Quinn, Mr. Cranes, Mr. Aaron Hilts, and now William Waech.
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Kraemer started teaching kindergarten; her first classroom was in the teachers’ lounge. “Then when my daughter started kindergarten, they asked me to start the K4,” she said. Eventually, Kraemer ended up with her own two children in her class.
“They would call me Mrs. Kraemer every day, and they’d raise their hand and say, ‘Mrs. Kraemer my mom bought me these pants.’ They would literally tell me stories about myself. One day my daughter came home, and we were eating dinner and she looked at me, and she said, ‘Mom… Mrs. Kraemer had that same outfit on today.'”
In the four decades Kraemer has been at Cabrini she has taught multiple generations of several families.
“Yes, I’ve had children of children that I’ve taught,” she said. “My very first class, one of the students I had, obviously he’s grown now, he came in asked if I remembered who he was. I said, yes, I did. I asked how he was doing and he said he was going to be a grandpa. That’s when I thought I am really old.”
Kraemer also told the recent story about having a record player in the class.
“I went to put an album on, and the kids said, “Mrs. Kraemer, where did you get that big CD….”
Questioned how it feels to be moving on, Kraemer said she has mixed emotions.
“It’s a blessing, but it’s also bittersweet,” she said. “My husband’s been retired for two years and I’m just thinking it’s time to let another generation come and take over.”
The teacher taking over for Mrs. Kraemer, Grace Bauman, was taught by Mrs. Kraemer.
“St. Frances Cabrini is a great place to be it’s a great community,” said Kraemer. “The parent’s support, the family love, and everything. It’s just been a blessing.”
In May, Mrs. Fichtner, Mrs. Gardon, and Mrs. Kraemer were honored by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in Milwaukee, for their dedicated service to St. Frances Cabrini School.
Cathy Fichtner started at Cabrini in 2000. “I came in when Janice Belsky retired and then her secretary retired with her, and then we got Mr. Quinn,” she said.
Fichtner worked in the health room and the old music room and then up to the religious ed office, (now the Learning Center) and eventually to the front office.
Fichtner, a 1973 graduate of St. Frances Cabrini, said the biggest change she’s seen in the last 22 years has been with technology.
“When I first started there wasn’t a computer,” she said. “We didn’t have email or text messages.”
The main communication was a newsletter. “They hired me because I started the newsletter and I had Microsoft Office which was, you know, more back then.”
The weekly newsletter took off and eventually the school bought Fichtner a computer.
Fichtner said she is retiring so she can enjoy her grandchildren. “It’s really nice to see the community and the support and the love here at Cabrini,” she said.
