Cheryl Gullicksrud recently wrapped up a 24-year career at the School District of Mondovi where she served as a teacher and in various administrative roles. An Eleva resident, Gullicksrud recently started a new job as agency director at CESA 4 in West Salem and is continuing work on her doctorate degree.

Gullicksrud moves on from Mondovi, but fond memories will stay with her

 

by Beth Kraft

 

Cheryl Gullicksrud has worn many hats in her 24 years with the School District of Mondovi. She has served as a teacher, was a principal in both the middle and elementary schools, and, for the past 10 years, has been the district administrator, giving Gullicksrud the opportunity to see district operations from several different angles.

At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Gullicksrud said good-bye to the Mondovi Schools to embark on a new professional journey; she took over as agency director at CESA 4 in West Salem on July 1.

But it’s clear the relationships that Gullicksrud has built with staff, colleagues, students and the Mondovi community are difficult to leave behind.

Gullicksrud has deep roots in Mondovi, having attended the Mondovi Schools herself from first through fifth grade. She then returned as a long-term sub in the business education department in 1987. That familiarity has created a sense of comfort over the years that kept the talented educator investing her time and energy in the Mondovi Schools.

“Once you’re here, it’s just a comfortable, good place to be and I didn’t have any interest in going anyplace else,” Gullicksrud said. “It’s the people, it’s the community, it’s been the support here.”

Gullicksrud and principals Michael Bruning and Paul Franzwa have all worked together for the past decade, providing the Mondovi Schools with steady leadership.

“We’re very fortunate and it’s kind of rare, I think, that we’ve had an administrative team that’s been together for ten years,” Gullicksrud pointed out. “That’s not a common situation and it creates a wonderful dynamic in terms of learning what each other’s strengths are and how we can help each other and help the district.”

Gullicksrud was hired full-time as a business education teacher for the 1988-89 school year, and also served as the yearbook advisor at that time.

“Over those years is when we first switched from electric typewriters to computer labs,” she remembered.

After teaching for four years, Gullicksrud took a brief hiatus from the Mondovi Schools to serve as the Cluster A Coordinator for CESA 10, working with area school districts like Eleva-Strum, Augusta and Fall Creek. Part of that job involved organizing the capstone programs hosted by each school, which allowed seniors to travel to other districts for half of their school day to participate in career exploration programs for marketing, home building, food service, auto body and more.

“It was a piece that fit with my vocational education at that time,” she said of her time with CESA 10. “It was great; I had some curriculum experience that I was starting to take on...it was a nice step into some kind of administration.”

Three years later, Gullicksrud found herself wanting to be closer to home to be there for her kids (she has three now-adult sons, Brad, Brandon and Brett, with husband Eric) and traveling amongst several school districts everyday was no longer ideal.

The business ed position at Mondovi opened back up at that time, and Gullicksrud jumped at the chance to return. She was subsequently rehired to her old position and taught alongside current business ed teacher Anne Fath.

“They were really fun, great years to have a partner to teach with,” Gullicksrud said.

In 1998, the school board opted to create a stand-alone position for middle school principal, shifting those grades out of the elementary principal’s responsibility as they were at that time.

Having previously obtained her principal’s license, Gullicksrud was hired to her first administrative role at Mondovi, holding the middle school principalship for four years before moving to elementary principal from 2002-05. She also held titles like curriculum director and district assessment coordinator through the years, gaining even more leadership experience.

“Those particular positions gave me a chance to see all kinds of parts of the district,” she explained.

Then in 2005 district administrator Glen Denk, who now heads up the Gilmanton School District, announced his retirement. Given her expertise in various aspects of the Mondovi Schools, Gullicksrud found herself a front-runner for the position.

“I think that’s part of what was viewed as being positive when I applied for the superintendency is that I had cross-the-district experience,” said Gullicksrud. “It’s been very fun, very exciting.”

 

Career confidence

Gullicksrud can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be involved in education.

“It’s something that I always wanted to do,” she said. “I can remember being in middle school and doing a careers report on being a special ed teacher.”

During her high school years at Eleva-Strum Central, from which Gullicksrud graduated in 1978, the challenge was simply figuring out which area of education she wanted to pursue.

She didn’t attend college right away after high school, taking a few years off to start a family, but her dream of working in the classroom only grew stronger with time. As she watched her own children, Gullicksrud was interested in learning more about how to help them grow.

When she did continue her education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, business education appealed the most because, Gullicksrud figured, if there were no open teaching positions she could still find an office job to put her skills to work. Plus those classes had always been her favorite at E-S.

Gullicksrud graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1984, then worked at Marten Transport for a year and as a substitute teacher before getting her official start at Mondovi a few years later.

 

Technology revamps education

Given her longevity, Gullicksrud has witnessed a variety of ways in which the advancement of technology has changed the student experience in Mondovi’s classrooms.

“I’m real proud of how the district has approached that,” she said of Mondovi’s work to keep pace with new advancements in technology.

Gullicksrud says the district has gradually made devices such as polycom machines, laptops, tablets and interactive whiteboards available to all students and teachers.

“It’s been a methodical process in that we added it as teachers were requesting it,” Gullicksrud said, noting that approach gave teachers a chance to learn the new tech devices before implementing them with students and didn’t put a strain on the district’s budget.

“It’s definitely a different world now,” Gullicksrud marveled. “Ten years ago people were joking that you walked into schools and they looked like they did one hundred years ago. That is not the case now when you walk into any classroom.”

Just as technology has changed the way students learn it has also altered the way teachers teach, tailoring their instruction to kids’ individual needs.

Collaboration with their peers has become much more common, and teachers now spend less and less time alone in their classrooms with their entire group of students.

“It’s not the isolated career that it used to be,” said Gullicksrud of teaching.

 

‘Kids are kids’

Gullicksrud’s favorite part of working in education, as many great teachers have said, is the kids.

“It’s always been the kids,” she said. “That piece has been the part I enjoyed the most, and it’s also a part that I’ve missed the last few years.”

The recently-graduated Class of 2015 was in second grade when Gullicksrud was named district administrator. But while there aren’t many students remaining from Gullicksrud’s days as principal, she hasn’t changed her warm regard for them.

“Kids are kids,” she said with a smile. “There might be twenty-five, thirty years of kids, but it’s always the same. There’s an energy there that’s exciting. Even the days that they’re struggling it’s helping them work through those problems and seeing them grow.”

The area community’s support of Mondovi’s students has also impressed Gullicksrud over the years.

“The community just always steps up and helps the kids,” she said, referencing approved referendum items and, most recently, helping the fourth and fifth grade Destination Imagination team meet its fundraising goal to attend the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn.

“That support has really meant a lot and it has certainly made my job very pleasant and much easier because it’s been such a supportive community,” Gullicksrud said.

 

A new chapter

In her new position at the CESA 4 office—one of 12 nonprofit Cooperative Educational Service Agencies that provide Wisconsin school districts with programs and services—Gullicksrud said she is excited for the opportunity to continue helping in education in a different capacity.

CESA 4, which holds a staff of over 40 educators, works with 26 school districts and their administrators, school boards and teachers. Some of those member school districts include nearby Alma, Cochrane-Fountain City, Independence and Whitehall.

“That service angle very much appeals to me as far as what can we do to help education be better in [each] district,” Gullicksrud said.

She will also continue work on her doctorate degree through Johns Hopkins University, having completed one year of coursework thus far. 

The program, designed for working adults, explores entrepreneurship in education by looking at ways to improve it, the innovative and creative ways that teachers are helping kids learn, and how to prepare kids for life after school, Gullicksrud explained.

“It’s very interesting to be able to talk to and be online with people from all over the country,” said Gullicksrud of pursuing her doctorate.

While the next steps in Gullicksrud’s career will carry her away from Mondovi, she shared that she will always appreciate the people she has had the chance to work and interact with over the past 24 years. Past students also have a special place in her heart.

“It’s been fun watching them grow up and their children grow up,” she said. “Those connections, those relationships are the legacy. That’s what I take with me is all those memories, and I thank everybody for all those great memories.”

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