Lula Allen will be joining the teaching staff of the Milwaukee SDA School North Campus as the 5th and 6th grade teacher for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year. Lula grew up in Chicago, Illinois where she and her family were members of the Hyde Park Seventh-day Adventist Church. As a child, she was a member of the Pathfinder Club and sang in the youth choir. She says, “Growing up in the church has been a great experience and helped in preparing me for my roles in the church as Pathfinder Leader, Head Usher, and Sabbath School Teacher.” Her home church in Hyde Park was also where she was married and welcomed two daughters into her family.
Lula attended Chicago State University and earned degrees in Education and Children’s Literature. Just before graduating she discovered that, because Chicago had far more teachers than were needed at the time, (this was 1992) she would begin her teaching career as a substitute teacher and then be placed in a teaching position when one became available. She recalls, “I had worked very hard at earning my degrees, and had no desire to become a substitute teacher! So, I prayed and meditated on Matthew 7:7.”
Soon after this, a group of recruiters from Milwaukee visited Chicago State University with the intention of hiring new teachers for the Milwaukee Public Schools. Lula, and eleven other graduates decided to visit Milwaukee with the recruiters. While there, they were taken to three different schools where they talked with principals and visited classrooms. At the third school, even though there were twelve in the group, the principal continued to direct her questions and conversation only to Lula. Little did she know that she was being interviewed for a sixth-grade teaching position. Lula says, “I had no idea that this position even existed! I was hired that very day and signed a contract one week later. God had heard and answered my prayer. I did not have to become a substitute teacher after all.” She noted that none of the other graduates were hired for Milwaukee teaching positions.
Her family relocated to Milwaukee where she taught in the Milwaukee Public Schools for twenty-five years. During her time there she taught grades 2 thru 8 and was also a Literacy Coach before retiring in 2017. However, after retiring, she began to miss teaching, and wanted to go back to the teaching field, but wondered if she should. So, she prayed!
A week later, while reading the church bulletin at the Milwaukee Northwest Seventh-day Adventist Church, Lula noticed that substitute teachers were needed for the school. She says, “Substitute teaching was not something I wanted to do 25 years ago, but now, it was perfect for me.” Lula applied for the substitute position and was hired.
Now, eight months later, she has very happily accepted the fifth-sixth grade teaching position at the North Campus in Milwaukee and says she is looking forward to working with the “wonderful students and staff whom I have already had the opportunity to become acquainted with.”
Lula is a homeschool coach and author, and in addition to her love of teaching, she finds great satisfaction in scrapbooking, baking, gardening, reading, and writing.
Laurella Case, assistant to Communications