Kristine Gilmore

Audio

Could you tell us about your childhood and were you lived and grew up?

I was born in West Bend, Wisconsin, which is just outside of Milwaukee.  I’m the oldest of four kids.  My family moved here when I was ten years old.  I grew up in Weston, went to Weston Elementary School, and, obviously, graduated from D.C. Everest.  My mom stayed home and my dad worked as a mechanic.  Neither of my parents had gone on to college.  It was a pretty traditional family upbringing.  My mom and dad are still married, and as my siblings would say, I’m the bossy older sister.

  What are some of your favorite memories from when you were a child?

I would say playing with my brothers and sisters.  We did a lot of camping when I was a kid, so we spent a lot of time camping on the weekends, and the family trips we took were always with our camper.  The other thing I enjoyed was sports.  I was very active in cross-country and track and running.  My sister and brothers and I were always making a game in our yard, like “kick the can” or those types of activities. 

  What are some of your hobbies?  Are you still interested in those things today?

Sure.  Now, I go to a lot of my children’s sports.  I have two daughters and a son, and they’re active in soccer, basketball, and those types of things.  I still like to run; I ran a marathon when I turned 40.  Other than some foot problems I’ve had lately, I still like to keep active with walking and running.  I think another hobby would be reading.  I like to read a lot, but with this type of job and three kids there isn’t a lot of time for hobbies. 

  What was your path of education?

As I said, I graduated from D.C. Everest and I have an undergraduate degree from UW-La Crosse.  After that, I worked as a teacher and got my masters degree from Edgewood College in educational administration, and I have a doctorate in educational administration.   I am also a professor now. 

  When you were in high school, did you want to be a teacher or did you have alternative career plans?

I’ve always liked kids a lot.  I babysat in my neighborhood often, and my sister and I would always play “school”.  Except, we never actually had the “school”; we were always getting ready for it.  So, I really liked everything about school.  I liked going to school, I liked being a student, and so being a teacher was a pretty natural fit.  I also was a coach, and those two things came together.  I did like science a lot, so I thought about something medical, but I was really drawn to teaching. 

  Was there anyone in particular who inspired you to go into teaching?

One of my uncles was a teacher, I was very close to him, and I always thought that that was a neat job.  He was just a really good person to my siblings and me.  Also, some teachers that I loved inspired me. Mrs. Smith at the Junior High was my English teacher, and she was one of my favorite teachers, and Mr. Chop at the high school.  I had really great teachers along the way.  It’s interesting coming back to where you went to school, because never in a million years do you think you’re going to come back as a principal.  I was a principal in the district first before I became superintendent.  I think teachers maybe don’t recognize it, but they always have a big impact.  There are always things you remember from certain teachers you have along the way.

  Can you give us an overview of your job and some of the things you’re involved with?

As superintendent, it’s really like being the CEO of a company.  I’m responsible for the whole operation of the school district.  The board makes a lot of policy decisions.  I am hired by the school board, which is group of elected officials to carry out the policies of the school district.  That’s everything from the finances of the school district to the curriculum offerings to safety to the buildings and grounds.  It’s a varied job.  I think another big part of it is community involvement.  Schools belong to the community, so it’s important that I have a good understanding of what the community wants and needs.  I’m really involved in a lot of community groups.  I’m on the board at Saint Clare’s Hospital.  I’ve been on the board of the Chamber and Junior Achievement.  I’m on the board at Northcentral Technical College, United Way, and the YMCA.  All those things are important to this community, and that’s why I like living here.  It’s important for me to give back to those things.  It’s more than just calling the snow day.  I often tell people, “If you think about it, we have almost 800 employees here.  It’s a big operation.  Every day.”

  Would you say that your work with the school is more deskwork and your work with the community is more hands on?

It’s a combination.   There are obviously some things I have to do at the desk, whether it be finance or signing things or legal issues, but there’s a lot of engagement with parents, community groups, teachers, custodial, APU, unions.  All of those things come into play.  Every day is very different. I try to schedule my priorities each day and it seems as soon as I schedule them something happens and that all goes by the wayside.  But I still try going into schools because I really like to have contact with students.  When I first started here, I used to go to the high school and come in sometimes and finally Dr. Johannsen said, “You’re not really here to see me, are you?” and I said, “Nope.”  He said, “You’re just here to get your kid-fix, aren’t you?”  And I said, “Yes.”  I have to see that what we’re doing is making a difference in the lives of kids each day.  I try to visit schools when I can.

  Is that what you like most about your job?

Yeah, because, if you think about it, if there was no education system, where would we be?  Where would we be as a community?  And for you, in your senior year, you’re probably sick of D.C. Everest and you’re ready to go on, but someday you’ll look back and think, “oh, well, I’m really thankful that I had all these opportunities and I worked on this Oral History book, and now it’s so much easier now that I’m in college compared to someone whose never worked on anything.”  It helps you think of careers or what you want to be as a person.  I think education is the key to having a really solid community. 

  Do you have any dislikes about your job?

I think with any job it’s stressful.  I worry each day: if there’s bad weather, I hope all the buses get in.  I feel very responsible for every kid in this district.  I may not know every kid, but I feel responsible.  I also feel very responsible because it’s taxpayers’ money.  So the money we have needs to be spent wisely and we can’t waste it.  People are basically supporting us that way and we need to be good shepherds of their money. 

  I know you have had a lot of jobs to get this point, being superintendent, such as principal, etc.  Have you had any struggles along the way, especially since you are female?

I started as a teacher and a coach, and my first job was assistant principal and athletic director at the Junior High.  I was only 28 when I started as a principal, which is fairly young.  When I started looking for a job, a lot of places asked, “Well, how will you handle discipline?  You’re a small female.”  Well, the last time I checked, schools don’t use physical punishment anymore, so it wouldn’t matter what your size is.  It was a little hard to get the first foot in the door, but I have to say this district has been excellent. I was then principal at Evergreen Elementary, and I opened the new middle school as principal.  That was a really unique experience, because I was right in there with the opening of the school, so I was at all the contractor meetings.   I think in all of my positions, there hasn’t always been a lot of women, but I’ve just gotten used to that along the way.  When you’re the athletic director there aren’t a lot of females either.  There aren’t a lot of female superintendents.  In Wisconsin, the typical superintendent is middle fifties, and male.  I’ve gotten used to being the “different” person, but I had a great education myself and I’ve always been confident in what I’m doing. 

  What did you coach here at Everest?

I didn’t coach at Everest.  When I was a teacher outside of Madison, I coached cross-country and track.  

  Are there any opportunities you had that you are thankful for, besides what the district offered you?

Yeah.  I think mentoring is an important thing.  When I say mentoring, I mean the person, who was the head of where I worked.  I happened to work in some rural schools, and we had something called SESA.  It’s a cooperative that hires you and you meet with them.  I talked about getting my master’s degree and he said, “What’s your problem?  You should be a principal.  You have everything it takes to be a principal.”  He was a gruff guy.  It’s people like that, who can see the skills within you, even if you’re not sure of them at that time, but they help bring them out.  So I have to say mentors have been an important thing for me.  And, my mom and dad:  they always believed you could do whatever you set your mind to, and if you worked hard, you could go ahead and do those things.

  What is the biggest difference, in your mind, of how women are treated today compared to when you were growing up? 

I feel there hasn’t been a ton of change yet.  There are a lot more women in leadership roles now.  I’m 41, but I would say there are more changes from my mother’s era than there are from mine.  When my mother grew up there were no sports for girls.  There were a lot of those things already when I grew up.  When I grew up, almost everybody’s mom stayed home.  That was the expectation.  Even if you had a job, if you had a child you were expected to stay home.  I don’t think that’s the position we have anymore.  I think it’s good that people have choices about whether or not they would like to stay home.  But then, even if you were a teacher the expectation was you couldn’t have a child and be a teacher.  That wasn’t that long ago.  I think there’s still a long way to go with what women can do.  We’re changing directions.  There are more females in college right now than there are males.  Nobody questions that there are female sports or female editors of books.  I think instead of just thinking “female”, we have to think about equity for all people, and looking at, truly, what the persons about, not what the color of their skin is or what their gender is or how they look.