The Mehlville Board of Education has declared today — May 11 — as Dr. Aurelia Hartenberger Day throughout the district.

School marquee signs will include special greetings for Hartenberger, and tributes will be presented throughout the district.

Hartenberger, whose name has been synonymous with the music programs in the Mehlville School District for the past 28 years, is retiring at the end of the school year.

Hartenberger currently serves as director of Fine and Practical Arts K-12. She has also held the positions of band director, choir director, Oakville Senior High School department chair and music curriculum director in the Mehlville School District.

Hartenberger’s talents are known well beyond the boundaries of the Mehlville School District.

She is immediate past president of the Southwest Division of the 120,000-member Music Educators National Conference — the National Association for Music Education.

Hartenberger also owns an extensive collection of historical musical instruments.

The Hartenberger World Music Collection of Historical Instruments has been previously displayed at the Sheldon Art Gallery in St. Louis and soon will be on display in South Carolina.