Spirit Lake High School

2701 Hill Ave.

Spirit Lake, IA  51360

Principal Steve Ratzlaff

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Welcome to Spirit Lake High School !

I am Steve Ratzlaff, the Spirit Lake High School principal and I want you to learn everything you can about our fine High School.  I transferred to my current position for the 2008-09 school year after having served as the Spirit Lake Middle School  principal for the last five years.  Prior to becoming middle school principal, I served as an associate principal at South East Junior High School in Iowa City for 8 years.  I also was the Kindergarten through Grade 12 principal in the Lone Tree Community School District for five years.  My teaching experience was in secondary social studies and I worked for three years in the Sioux Valley-Round Lake School District in Minnesota and seven years in the Sibley-Ocheyedan School District.  I taught social studies to students in grades 7-12 in these districts and I also had extensive coaching experiences.  My undergraduate degree was a BA from St. Thomas College in St. Paul, MN and I earned my Masters Degree at Drake University. Since earning my Masters I have continued my education and now have accumulated credits equivalent to the Education Specialist Degree from the University of Iowa. 

My wife Lynn and I reside in Spirit Lake and we have two grown children.  I am very excited to be the principal of the Spirit Lake High School and believe it is a great privilege to be in my position.  We are committed to providing a quality comprehensive experience to our students and we have an outstanding teaching and support staff available to assist our students as they reach for excellence.

 The students of Spirit Lake High School are outstanding and have achieved academic as well as co-curricular excellence.  We are a comprehensive high school with a variety of academic choices for college-bound students and we also offer a great variety of classes for students interested in vocational and fine arts.  Students in the Spirit Lake High School score well above the state and national average on the Iowa Test of Educational Development and our students that take the ACT and SAT do extremely well.  Our activity program is outstanding with 27 of 31 varsity activity programs earning academic achievement awards and with several state qualifying teams in cross country, track, basketball and wrestling.

 Please contact me via email or phone if you have any questions about the Spirit Lake High School.  We are very proud of our programming and I would be happy to discuss any aspect of our school operation with you!