ELBERTA, Ala. — Rhonda Krehling takes jokes that she’s been with St. Benedict School in Elberta since it opened with aplomb. She’s been hearing them for years.

But, the bright-eyed mother of two is quick to note that the school opened its doors in 1912. She came to the school in 1987.

“I went to trade school,” said the Elberta resident. She graduated from what is now the South Baldwin Center for Technology in Robertsdale.

“I was at Foley High and decided to go to trade school,” said Krehling. She said she got a “business office” education at the school, and was able to get the St. Benedict’s job almost immediately after graduation.

It was a good fit. She had met her soon-to-be husband, Mike, and his family had been part of the St. Benedict’s family for many years.

There was already a church, St. Bartholomew, but the families wanted more. The school was staffed by Benedictine nuns from the Benedictine Chapter House in Cullman, Ala. The school now has a full compliment of lay teachers.

“His mother and sister went here (St. Benedict’s) when it was a boarding school,” said Krehling. “Farm families didn’t have ways to get children here every day, so they boarded during the week and went home weekends.”

The school received payment in “food off the table to come here,” Krehling says. Her husband’s aunt, Rose, was part of the first class at the school.

Krehling’s own children, Laura Krehling and Angela Boyd attended the school. It was sometimes a balancing act to be a school secretary and a parent, but Krehling says that the children had their space and occupations and she had her own.

“The school is here because the people made the sacrifice to have one,” said Krehling. “It’s here because of the love and sacrifice of the sisters and the old families around here.”

She pointed out that the families who sent and are sending their children to the school contributed supplies and labor to build the school that stands today. She noted the only nearly original building on the campus is the small white clapboard building behind the current school building.

And the personnel roster has changed over the years.

“When I got here we had a priest principal and then lay principals. The journey has been quite interesting,” Krehling said.

But one thing has not changed.

“We are allowed to talk about God,” she said

And while Elberta has grown in recent years, the school still educates around 195 children. Some traditions have changed, however.

“Around Labor Day, parents would come down and we had a festival,” said Krehling. Now, we have the German Festival.”