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Since he graduated from Southeast Missouri State, Jeff Steffens has only ever had one job — well, worked at one place, anyway.
Steffens, 52, is in his third year as principal at Perryville High School, his latest assignment in a 29-year career with the Perry County School District that spanned everything from teacher’s aide to middle school teacher, athletic director, coach and now administrator.
Steffens was named the Republic-Monitor’s Citizen of the Year during the Perryville Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet last Thursday.
Surprisingly, being an educator wasn’t Steffens’ first career choice. Even then, it came in second place to his true love.
“I thought about being an accountant, but it came back to my first love,” said Steffens. “That was always sports. I played it ever since I was a young kid. I was successful at it and I thought, you know, what a better job, to be a coach of some type. So to be a coach, you also had to be a teacher. That is why I chose teaching.”
A Perryville native and the son of Donald and Florence Steffens, Steffens graduated from Perryville High in 1985 as a three-sport athlete. After graduation, he went on to SEMO, where he played NCAA Division II baseball for four years before graduating with a degree in elementary education.
Steffens began his classroom career in 1991 as a teacher’s aide in Fran Bohnert’s classroom, working with disabled kids, and a year later, was hired as a fifth-grade teacher.
After 10 years at Perry County Middle School, he made the jump to athletic director at the high school, a position he held for 15 years before being hired as principal.
As a coach — the whole reason he got into the teaching business in the first place — he’s coached everything from middle school football, basketball and track to freshman football, varsity basketball baseball and softball. In fact, there are only two sports he hasn’t coached — volleyball and soccer.
Along the way, Steffens has shown he isn’t afraid to take on extra work. According to some of his colleagues, he can often be found driving a bus, trimming trees, or any number of other less administrative tasks.
“He is the kind of citizen who epitomizes Perry County, hardworking, caring, and selfless,” said assistant principal Shadrick Shafer.
He’s also quite busy. During the school year, Steffens’ day begins well before the bell. Arriving just after 6 a.m., he answers emails and tries to a jump on organizing the day.
“Just like anybody else’s schedule, it can change in a heartbeat,” Steffens said.
Nevertheless, he makes his best effort to be out on the front porch by 7:15 a.m. or so to greet students, parents and staff.
The rest of the day is taken up with meetings, evaluations and drop-ins, interrupted every 45 minutes or so by a tour of the halls between classes, taking time to, as he put it, “talking to kids, seeing how their day’s going, making sure the traffic flow is good in the hallways and checking on those kids that seem to be not having such a good day.”
“Jeff acts as a servant leader, a humble role model, a patient mentor, an empathetic counselor, and a trustworthy friend to the students and families of Perry County on a daily basis, and he does so with a smile,” said assistant principal and athletic director Justin Dreyer.
When the final bell rings in the afternoon, Steffens’ day is still not over, especially if it’s a game night. After spending decades as a coach, it’s familiar territory.
“I try to leave at 4:15 p.m.,” Steffens said, “but if it’s a game night, my day usually ends at about 8:30 p.m.”
Steffens said there are definite differences between being the principal and being a coach.
“As the principal, you are dealing with all the students,” he said. “You’re dealing with the staff. You just don’t have three or four assistants to worry. You’ve got to make sure all the kids are successful. The ultimate goal for the student is make sure that graduating and being successful in the real world after they graduate from high school, if it’s going to college or of it’s going to straight to work.”
On the sidelines, everything happens on a smaller scale, but every interaction is just as important.
“As a coach, realistically, you know that some of the kids can play college and some of them will be successful,” Steffens said. “We hope they’re finding success or having fun because it’s just an extension of the classroom. As a coach, you’re making sure that they are learning something about life skills because you learn more probably about the life skills than you will be going on and becoming a professional athlete and making a lot of money at it.”
Away from school, Steffens is a husband and father. His wife, Jill, runs M&M Kids Kampus with her twin, Jane Moldenhauer, while his three children — twins Marcus and Madaline, 22, and Trent, 20 — are busy with their own careers.
Marcus is a quality engineer at TG Missouri, Madaline is a nurse at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, and Trent is an HVAC technician at Schumer Brothers.
“For the past 29 years, [the school] has been basically my life, almost,” Steffens said. “I look back sometimes thinking that I probably cheated my kids and there’s days that I put work before family events. But I have a very supportive wife who stepped in and took care of that side.”
While some of his former players might have differing opinions, Steffens is, by all accounts, a good boss, but that could just be the apple butter talking.
“He is considerate to a fault, and frequently bestows handmade gifts of apple butter or spiced cakes on his faculty and staff,” wrote Shafer in his nomination letter.
That’s part of Steffens’ plan.
“I feel that I’m very open where the staff will talk to me,” Steffens said. “And I wanted to make a place where our staff like to work, knowing that, if they leave, they may be missing something.”
And then there are the students. After 29 years, Steffens has had a hand in educating thousands of students.
“Our school mission is to create an environment that is making college- and career- ready, productive citizens in our society,” Steffens said. “My mission is to make sure every kid has an opportunity to make their life better when they get to be a graduate of Perryville High School.”
