Julie Beckman (2007)

BECKMAN

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 12/4/2008 at 14:44:07

The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa
Thursday, August 2, 2007

Julie Beckman: Teacher Dies in Iowa Crash

Colleagues said Julie Beckman had meant to go to Sunnyside Elementary School today to begin preparing her classroom for this year's batch of new kindergartners.

After a motorcycle accident Tuesday evening in Madison County in central Iowa, students who come to the school today and Friday to register for the 2007-08 school year will find grief counselors there in her place.

Beckman, 58, died when a motorcycle operated by her husband, David Beckman, went off the road on a curve just before 7:30 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred near the towns of Earlham and Dexter just west of Des Moines.

Arrangements are pending with Prugh Funeral Service in Burlington.

At Sunnyside on Wednesday, thoughts were for Beckman's family, which includes three adult children, and for the future.

"So many kids are going to miss out," Principal Terri Rauhaus said, speaking of the kindergartners this year and beyond who will not get to have Beckman as their teacher.

"When I think of Julie," Rauhaus said, "I guess she's just the epitome of what a teacher and what teaching are all about. She had a love for children that was just indescribable."

According to a report filed by the Iowa State Patrol, the Beckmans were riding northwest on Madison County road P53 when the 1987 Harley Davidson went out of control while rounding a curve and traveled onto the north shoulder. From there, the motorcycle rolled into the ditch, and both Beckmans were thrown.

Neither was wearing a helmet, the patrol report said.

David Beckman, 57, was taken by helicopter to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, where he remained hospitalized Wednesday but was expected to recover, relatives told a hospital spokeswoman.

Charges of failure to maintain control and expired registration on the motorcycle are pending in the crash.

A 35-year veteran of early childhood education, Julie Beckman started work in the Burlington schools in 1990, teaching kindergarten at Central Avenue Elementary. She was at Washington Elementary School when, in 2000, she became the first teacher in the district to gain National Board certification.

She had taught at Sunnyside since 2002, when the district closed Washington as a permanent elementary attendance center.

Rauhaus, who learned of the accident Wednesday morning from a friend of Beckman's who also teaches in the district, activated the staff telephone tree to spread the word of Beckman's death.

"It's not the kind of news you want to give," Rauhaus said. "But I wanted them to hear it from me rather than somebody else."

For the district, Beckman's death turned tragedy averted into tragedy deferred.

In late June, Burlington High School principal Tom Messinger and James Madison Middle School counselor Kent Strabala survived a harrowing experience in the Mississippi River after their boat would not start and was pulled into the current at Lock and Dam 18, sending both men into the water.

Tuesday's accident marks the first crisis for new Superintendent Leland Morrison, who arrived on the job July 2, just three days after the near-miss on the river.

"It's a tragic morning in the Burlington Community School District and across the Burlington community," Morrison said Wednesday.

Counselors from the Burlington schools and Great Prairie Area Education Agency will be at Sunnyside for registration to help Beckman's former students and others cope with the tragedy. As for the first few days of the school year, which is to start Aug. 23, Rauhaus said she would follow the lead of the school's counselor, Bev Faaborg.

While the loss will be felt by all the staff at Sunnyside, it may be most acute for her kindergarten colleagues.

One, Christine Larkins, said Wednesday that she and Beckman started teaching full-time in Burlington the same year. In the time that they were co-workers at Sunnyside, Larkins said she could not think of one specific thing she gained from teaching alongside Beckman.

"If it was one thing," Larkins said, "it was her passion."

Morrison said he met Beckman just once, when she brought ice cream to the Administration Building a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the state's award of a $128,000 preschool grant to the district.

He called her "delightful," and said her loss would have a "major impact on the district and the staff at Sunnyside."

Rauhaus said Beckman's absence will create a "huge, huge void" both at the school and in the school district.

The job of finding someone to teach those students who would have been Beckman's will begin in earnest once the initial shock and grief have abated, Morrison said. Returning teachers were to report to work Aug. 20, while teachers who are new to the district are to start Aug. 16.

A substitute teacher is likely to start the year working in what had been Beckman's classroom, Rauhaus said. A permanent hire will come later, she said.

Morrison likewise was in no rush to fill the unexpected vacancy.

"We obviously want a very good teacher to teach kindergarten," Morrison said. "It may be a scramble, but the bigger task is the grief for those people right now."