By NICK VLAHOS
For The Weekly Post
BRIMFIELD – Less than a month after a season that ended with a second successive Elite Eight appearance, Brimfield-Elmwood needed a new softball head coach.
During its meeting June 24, the Brimfield School Board accepted the retirement of Kurt Juerjens, who since 2014 had coached the B-E high school varsity program. He also retired as Brimfield Grade School softball head coach, a position he’d held since 2015.
“I just thought it was time,” Juerjens said a few days after the meeting. “I have some other things going on in life, and it was just time. I still enjoy coaching the kids, but just like everything in life, time goes on and you do those things over and over again, and you wonder if maybe there’s not something else.”
Among those other things is watching his grandson participate in high school athletics, Juerjens said. Family considerations also were part of the reason he quit coaching summer softball a few years ago.
Juerjens’ final two B-E teams were among his best. The Indians finished 29-6 this past season and advanced to a Class 2A supersectional, like they did in 2025. The 2026 team lost three seniors, including top pitchers Sawyer Drury and Schyer Meinders.
B-E won six regionals, four sectionals and one supersectional in Juerjens’ tenure. The top achievement came in 2015, when pitcher Morgan Florey led B-E to a second-place 2A state finish.
“That kind of kick-started everything,” Juerjens said. “It felt like interest was created by Morgan, because she was just one of those kids who had it all going. Morgan was kind of this bigger-than-life player, and the media followed her around like crazy.”
Juerjens’ B-E record was 226-43. He isn’t leaving Brimfield softball entirely. The board OK’d his hiring as a grade-school assistant. Mallorie Menold was appointed grade-school head coach; she was one of Juerjens’ B-E assistants. Grade-school softball is played in the fall, when Juerjens has more free time.
“I enjoy the younger kids,” said Juerjens, who also said he appreciated the support he received. “There’s just more you can do there as far as teaching.”
Juerjens’ and Menold’s job changes were among 14 personnel moves on the board-meeting agenda.
Additional extra-curricular hires the board approved were Jacob Bowman as high school boys basketball junior-varsity and assistant coach, Brandon Butler as high school girls basketball head coach, Katie Gorham as 8th-grade girls basketball coach and 7th-grade assistant, Phil Johnson as grade-school baseball assistant coach, Alison Jones as grade-school athletics director and Denver Willis as 7th-grade girls basketball coach and 8th-grade assistant.
Non-extra-curricular hires authorized were JoAnna Bernal and Alexis Ebey as grade-school paraprofessionals, Kourtney Hilyard as grade-school head cook and Marissa Unes as 6th-grade English and social-studies teacher.
The board also accepted the resignations of high school girls basketball JV coach Josh Clarke and grade-school science teacher Josh McKown. He was Butler’s predecessor as girls basketball coach.
Among other items board members approved were:
• A $30,918.03 expense with Wisconsin-based Renaissance Learning, Inc., for educational software.
• A $33,180 contract with Tazewell County Asphalt Co. Inc. of East Peoria to remove and replace a grade-school driveway.
• A $37,724 deal with Dell Technologies for 100 Chromebook computers.
• Revision of an agreement approved in May with M.R. Mason Contractor & Co. of East Peoria for grade-school masonry work. About $4,000 in additional repairs are necessary, according to Brimfield Superintendent Chad Jones.
Before those items were considered, the board authorized an amended budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The budget calls for an operating-fund deficit of $1,255,018, based on revenues of $8,820,740 and expenses of $10,075,758. The fund balance is $3,918,317.
“It’s an amended budget, but it’s pretty similar to the one we passed in September,” Jones said.
A hearing before the budget was approved elicited no public comment. Budget planning for 2027 might include fund transfers, cuts or belt-tightening, fund-balance spending or revenue increases, according to Jones.
Board members also approved a change to the starting time of their meetings, effective July 15. They are to begin at 6:30 p.m., one half-hour earlier than previously.
The board meeting was the last for grade-school Principal Julie Kurtz, whose resignation was effective June 30. Earlier, Assistant Principal Nicole Loser was approved as Kurtz’s successor.
“I feel honored the board was supportive of me moving into that role,” Loser said. “I’m excited for what Julie’s prepared me for.”
Loser was assistant principal for four years. Before that, she taught for 20 years in the Dunlap School District. Loser has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Illinois State University and a master’s in administration from Aurora University.
