After 21 years working for the district, longtime Mills Lawn music teacher JoFrannye Reichert, pictured at center, is set to retire this month. Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston, left, and Superintendent Terri Holden gave Reichert her due accolades at the Thursday, Dec. 11 school board meeting. (Photo courtesy of Yellow Springs Schools)
Reichert to retire from Yellow Springs Schools
- Published: December 24, 2025
The final school board meeting of the year, held Thursday, Dec. 11, began festively with a performance from the YS High School choir, who sang “White Christmas,” “Chain of Fools” and “Bright Morning Star” under the direction of Lorrie Sparrow-Knapp.
It was a fitting send-off for longtime Mills Lawn music teacher JoFrannye Reichert, whose retirement this month after 21 years with the school district was marked during the meeting. A Yellow Springs graduate, Reichert served the district as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional before being hired as the full-time music teacher for Mills Lawn in 2007.
Assistant Superintendent Megan Winston said during the meeting that Reichert had spent “years making sure the students of Mills Lawn didn’t just learn notes and sounds or just memorize lines for a play.”
“Her students have explored cultures, history, stories from around the world,” Winston said. “One of my favorites is her ability to use a cross-curricular approach to help students see that music can connect to everything.”
Reichert’s time in the district has included years of bringing Mills Lawn students, and their performances, out of the classroom and into the community with “flash mob” choir performances, such as 2014’s “Cuban Shuffle” in front of the Little Art to raise money for the theater. She has also organized, directed, choreographed and sometimes adapted scripts for the well-loved tri-annual all-school musicals, including 2012’s “The Albert Brown Show,” 2015’s “Seussical: The Musical” and 2018’s “Lion King KIDS.”
The latter production was partially reprised in late October this year, when Reichert directed the Mills Lawn choir in a unique abridged performance of the work in a crosswalk near the school, combining the musical numbers with a “flash mob” sensibility. Winston noted that Reichert’s flash mobs have been a personal favorite of hers, as they “surprise us in special ways — and sometimes even surprise the drivers at intersections.”
“While we will miss having her at Mills Lawn each day, we know that her impact will continue for years,” Winston said.
Accepting a plaque from the district, Reichert, citing her maiden name, noted that her retirement will mark the end of “62 years of Robinsons as students, staff or faculty” in the district.
“Though I’m starting a new chapter, I’ve loved every moment I’ve been a music teacher, and every other role I’ve had in Yellow Springs schools,” Reichert said. “I’m very proud and very humbled that you let me play music with your babies every day; I loved it.”
Board passes last resolution
The evening also marked the last meeting for outgoing school board members Dorothée Bouquet, Judith Hempfling and Amy Magnus, whose four-year terms end this year. The school board members were thanked by Winston, Superintendent Terri Holden and Treasurer Jacob McGrath for their years of service.
The board’s final act in its current configuration was to pass a “Resolution Denouncing Harmful Immigration Policies and Affirming Support for All Students.”
The resolution, modeled on a similar one recently passed by Toledo Public School District, cites the decision in the 1982 Supreme Court case Plyler v Doe, which the resolution notes “guarantees that every child has the right to an education, regardless of immigration status.”
The resolution states that the board “condemns immigration policies that harm our students and families”; that all district sites will “remain supportive and secure environments for students and their families to seek help, assistance and information if faced with fear and anxiety about immigration enforcement efforts”; that “student privacy will be protected”; that the district will “help to identify community resources that are available to support families”; and that “staff will be trained to safeguard the rights of all students and appropriately handle enforcement activities.”
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