Q&A WITH CHRIS KULAS

(Editor’s note: The Enterprise & News recently chatted with Chris Kulas, the new third grade teacher at Birnamwood Elementary-Middle School. He worked for the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District originally and came back after working a school year in Wausau.)

Q: What is your work/education background?

A: I have an associate degree from Northcentral Technical College in computer programming and a Bachelor of Science degree from Stevens Point in elementary education. My previous jobs have been factory work, office work, and construction.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I am originally from Galloway, which is about 15 miles southwest of Wittenberg. I have six siblings, one of which still lives in Galloway with the rest spread out in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida. My wife works at Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats, where she has been for the past 15-plus years.

Q: What’s your basic philosophy for teaching?

A: I think school should be a place that holds a lot of value in the community in which it resides and with the families that are part of it. I think school should be a place where students are excited to come every day, where they can have fun and learn. It’s a place that reinforces the values of respect and work ethic that are being taught at home. I think that anyone can do whatever they want as long as they are willing to work for it.

Q: What brought you to WBSD?

A: I originally started teaching third grade in Birnamwood in 2007. In 2010, I was moved to fifth grade in Birnamwood and taught there until 2018. Birnamwood is a 4K-8 building with two sections in each grade.

Last school year, an opportunity opened up in the Wausau School District, at Franklin Elementary that I wanted to try and really enjoyed. The school was a K-5 building, with K-3 having three sections at each grade and fourth and fifth having two sections each.

At the end of the school year, members of the Birnamwood staff started contacting me about the third grade position, at first I listened but didn’t think much of it. After the school year was over and I started my summer job, working at WBSD in the technology department, I sat down with administration where we talked about this position. After thinking about it with my wife, we decided that coming back to Birnamwood would be a good fit for our future plans.

Q: Where do you live and what do you like about the location?

A: I have lived in the Wittenberg area most of my life. I enjoy living in the country and knowing my neighbors.

Q: Who was the inspiration for you becoming a teacher?

A: My mother was the number one inspiration for me becoming a teacher. She was a very altruistic, thoughtful, respectable, easygoing, and appreciated person in her community. It seems like she did everything and still had time for her family at home and her family at school.

She was able to raise her seven children while teaching kindergarten in Mosinee, was the town clerk for something like 41 years, held various roles at church, and a taxi cab for all of her children, and I can’t remember her ever complaining about any of it.