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Craig's Kuehne to retire at the end of the school year

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Janesville Craig principal Mike Kuehne kids around with students during their lunch period. Kuehne has announced that he is retiring at the end of the year.

JANESVILLE — Mike Kuehne believes kids today are better than ever.

That they’re more talented than ever.

And he cares about them just as much as he always has.

But now it’s time to step down.

On Tuesday, the Janesville School District announced that Kuehne, Craig High School’s popular principal, would retire at the end of the school year.

“I’ve been in education for 31 years,” Kuehne said. “I don’t have a master plan of what I’m going to do next, but I’m not going from here to something else.”

His retirement is something he and his wife, Renee, have discussed for a long time, Kuehne said.

His biggest struggle?

Leaving his students.

“If anything, the kids are the reason I’m having trouble retiring,” Kuehne said.

Kuehne, 57, started his career in education teaching in Milton Schools. During his tenure in Janesville, he has been principal of Craig High School, Marshall Middle School, and Wilson Elementary School. He also was director of instruction.

It’s a fitting career for a man who grew up in Janesville and attended all the schools where he later would be principal.

Kuehne grew up on Putnam Avenue near the General Motors Plant, where his father worked.

He went to Wilson Elementary School.

“I walked to Wilson everyday,” Kuehne said. “It was five miles up hill both ways.”

Well, no, he amended. It was about a mile, and all the kids walked together.

Mr. Williams was his principal.

“My mother thought he walked on water,” Kuehne said.

Williams would come down to the lunchroom everyday to supervise the kids.

“If a kid forgot his lunch, he’d go around the lunchroom asking the other kids if they had an extra sandwich or a bag of chips,” Kuehne recalled. “In the end, the kid who forgot his lunch had more food than the kids that brought lunch.”

Williams would do magic tricks, such as putting coins up his sleeve and pulling them out from behind children’s ears.

When Kuehne became principal at Wilson, he did the same magic tricks with coins—and the kids still loved them.

Kuehne attended Marshall Junior High when it still was on Main Street and graduated from Craig in 1971.

He wasn’t a perfect student.

“I spent quite a bit of time on the opposite side of the principal’s desk,” Kuehne said.

His infractions?

“Challenging the rules,” Kuehne said.

Society was different then, he said.

“Our student council president was Russ Feingold,” Kuehne said. “He organized a walk-out and sit-in out in front of the school to protest the Vietnam War.”

Kuehne’s mother encouraged him to participate in the walk-out/sit-in. His brother was serving in Vietnam at the time, and the issue hit close to home.

During high school, he had a great love for animals and considered becoming a veterinarian. But then he looked at his grades and thought, “Nah, maybe not.”

He enlisted in the Navy for a four-year stint, serving stateside in Florida and at the naval base in Chicago.

A degree in education from Whitewater College—now UW-Whitewater—followed, and he later received a master’s degree and doctorate from UW-Madison.

His career has had amazing moments—big and small.

He recalled a time at Wilson School when one of his students was a newly arrived minority from Milwaukee.

Everyday he said “hello” to her or tried to engage her in conversation.

She ignored his overtures.

Many people would have considered the divide between their lives too deep to cross with cheerful greetings.

“One day, she came up to me and said, ‘I need to talk to you,’” Kuehne said.

The girl was struggling with some “very serious” issues, and Kuehne, working with social workers and family members was able to help her.

All those friendly gestures had made a difference.

“The message came across that I cared and I wouldn’t be judgmental,” he said.

Kuehne is grateful to his hometown.

“It’s a privilege and an honor to work as an educator,” he said. “And it’s a privilege to work in a community that values education so highly.”