Longtime secretary Elly Dahler shows how much she cares about Vista View Elementary not just through waves and welcomes during the school year — she also demonstrates it through her weeding and watering over the summer.
For Dahler, the Burnsville school's secretary for 26 years, maintaining both the front and back gardens is a labor of love. During the school year, she heads up the school beautification team. Over the summer, she spends her own time — about five hours a week — making sure the flowers, vegetables and trees look their best.
"I'm proud of Vista View, and I want it to show," Dahler said. "Not just inside but on the outside as well."
The gardens "just make everything so welcoming," she added.
Dahler has been caring for the front gardens, filled mostly with perennials like lilies, daisies and hosta, for a decade, with her husband and granddaughter helping out.
Creating garden areas on either side of the front sidewalk was a project of a previous principal, who wanted to have a welcoming entrance. Before that, "Our front entrance was really sad," Dahler said, with just trees and a fence. A landscaper came and selected plants that would thrive there and come back annually, she said.
After that, Dahler, who also tends gardens at her mother's house, in her own yard and at her lake home, was a natural to maintain the area. "I've learned to kind of work it into my routine," she said.
"Elly works really hard to make sure that first impression is a positive one," said Lynn Rhinevault, first-grade teacher at Vista View. "I'll drive past [during the summer] and see her out there as well. It's never-ending."
