Fire truck water day returns to William Tell Elementary

William Tell Elementary brought back its fire truck water day on May 12, giving K-6 students a playful finish to the school year while putting Tell City firefighters in front of children as familiar community helpers. Tell City-Troy Township School Corp said the tradition had returned to WTE, and Assistant Principal Tomi Jo Leistner helped share the news through the school corporation’s page.

The return also fit the way William Tell Elementary presents itself in Tell City. The school, at 1235 31st Street, is one of southern Indiana’s only STEM-certified elementary schools and says its mission is Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students. Its staff page lists Principal Alexa Osborne and Assistant Principals Tomi Jo Leistner and Sarah Elrhanjaoui, a leadership team that has also overseen other hands-on student activities, including a triathlon for William Tell Elementary’s 1st-6th graders.

For parents, the water day offered more than a seasonal break. It created a low-pressure meeting point between families, the school and the Tell City Volunteer Fire Department, reinforcing the kind of trust that matters when children see firefighters in an emergency later on. Tell City schools are small enough that those relationships carry across the whole system, which the city says includes only William Tell Elementary and Tell City Jr.-Sr. High School. The school corporation’s main office is at 837 17th Street in Tell City.

The fire department brings deep local history to that kind of partnership. Tell City says the first cistern built specifically for firefighting was installed in 1859 at Main and Mozart streets, a reminder that organized fire protection has been part of town life for more than a century and a half. Today, the department’s equipment includes a 102-foot ladder-platform truck with a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump, a 2,000-gallon pumper/tanker rated at 1,000 gallons per minute, a pumper truck capable of 1,250 gallons per minute and a brushfire truck with a 300-gallon tank.

A directory listing describes the Tell City Volunteer Fire Department as all-volunteer, with 24 members and five reserves. It says the department responds to about 100 runs a year and serves roughly 7,700 residents across 17 square miles, including Tell City and part of Troy Township. In that setting, a school event built around a fire truck is more than a crowd-pleaser. It is a small but visible sign of how Perry County’s schools and first responders keep their connections with families intact.