The Feller Story
Built From a Refusal to Give Up on Students Who Couldn't Read
Feller School didn't start with a building, a board, or a business plan. It started with one teacher who looked at herself honestly — and decided to do something about it.
"I am smart. I am strong. I am brave. I am determined. I CAN DO HARD THINGS — and so can you."
Kimberly Feller-Janus, M.Ed.
Founder & Director, Feller School for Dyslexia
A Teacher Who Refused to Blame the Kids
Kimberly Feller-Janus has been teaching since 1988. For years, she loved her job — making learning fun, filling her classroom with joy. But something started to bother her. She was teaching first grade, watching kids struggle to read, and the answers she kept getting from the profession didn't sit right.
"We started believing that if the kid would just work harder, if they would read at home, if their parents would sit down with them — then they're going to learn to read. We were blaming everybody else for their inability to learn to read."
So she stopped. She looked at herself instead of the kids. And she walked away from the school district to figure out what was actually going wrong — and what could actually be done about it.
She started a tutoring center out of her home. She Googled how to teach phonics. She found a woman on YouTube doing flashcard drills with letter sounds and realized she didn't know half of them. That woman had written a book — Uncovering the Logic of English — and she lived three hours away. Kim drove three hours to take her to lunch.
"On my way back home I thought — oh my gosh, I have the Holy Grail. I've got to share this with more teachers. I've got to share this with everybody."
The research was clear: skilled readers and dyslexic readers use different parts of their brain. The solution wasn't harder work — it was the right instruction. And most classrooms weren't giving kids that instruction. Kim knew what she had to do next. She wasn't going to open another tutoring center. She was going to open a school.
Hear It From Kim
In her own words — why she left, what she found, and why she'll never stop fighting for these kids.
The Feller Five
Kim talked to the parents of students she had been tutoring that summer. She told them her idea — if she could find a space, would they send their child to her school?
They said yes.
Feller School opened in 2020 with five students — five little boys, all around nine years old, all going into third grade, all of them not reading. Kim was the classroom teacher, the principal, the lunch lady, the recess supervisor, and the janitor.
"The first day of school, there were just five desks. Five little boys and me. And I was so excited."
By the end of that first year, those five boys were reading. Year two brought 17 students. Year three, 23. The Feller Five were the beginning of something that keeps growing — because the need has never stopped being real.
What We Stand For
To teach all children to read, write, spell, and do math
Every child who comes through our doors leaves with the foundational skills they need — not just to get through school, but to navigate the world.
To prevent reading failure
67% of fourth graders in Wisconsin are not reading proficiently — and it's getting worse. We believe that number doesn't have to stay there. We're doing something about it every single day.
"I am smart. I am strong. I am brave. I am determined."
Every student at Feller knows this. They say it, they believe it, and by the time they leave — they've proven it to themselves and everyone who ever doubted them.
"My dream is that we don't have to charge tuition. My other dream is to take all the children who have less than anybody else — bring them here. We're going to love you, we're going to teach you, and you're going to love to learn. And once you read, the world is your oyster."
— Kimberly Feller-Janus, M.Ed., Founder & Director Come See What We're Building →