More than a year ago, Walter Kistenfeger was given a choice of remaining as principal at Hinsdale Middle School or assuming that job at the new Clarendon Hills Middle School, which opened Aug. 28.He decided to stay at Hinsdale.
“I’d already done a new school one time and I had a real interest in seeing through the transition at Hinsdale Middle School,” he said.
When Mary Curley came on board as superintendent of Elementary School District 181 in July 1999, she persuaded him to reconsider.
“I thought he was the best choice for the new school because all of the students know him and he provides a connection for them,” Curley said. “It was hard for him to leave. I talked to him about it and about the difference he could make, and now I think he’s excited about it.”
Kistenfeger, 48, agreed that he’s looking forward to the challenge of the new school, 301 Chicago Ave. in Clarendon Hills, which was built to relieve the overcrowding at Hinsdale. The approximately 1,200 6th, 7th and 8th graders will be divided between the two facilities. The 16 portable classrooms parked outside Hinsdale, 100 S. Garfield Ave., no longer will be needed as classrooms. (Eight stand-alone units have been removed. The remainder, which are attached to the building, could be used periodically when extra space is needed, Kistenfeger said.)
When asked to name something he is most proud of accomplishing at Hinsdale, Kistenfeger said that the mobile classrooms were a big hurdle to overcome.
“Just keeping the building functioning at a high academic level and a high emotional level [despite the overcrowding] was an accomplishment,” he said. “It wasn’t easy with those 16 portable classrooms–on snowy days you’d have all kinds of stuff tracked into the building.
“I give my staff all the credit in the world for maintaining a positive attitude.”
The staff credits Kistenfeger with keeping morale high. “We’ve been in survival mode the last few years,” Assistant Principal Joyce Macal said. “It was nice to have someone in a leadership role who could keep encouraging us.
“Teachers had been functioning in spaces that weren’t really adequate, and he supported them by giving whatever extra resources he could, like funding for field trips or if they wanted to bring in a special speaker.”
Macal added: “He’s also very concerned about the whole person. He’s not just the teachers’ principal. He wants to make sure his teachers are comfortable in all aspects of their life, like if they’re dealing with issues outside of school.”
As he looks back at his seven years at Hinsdale, Kistenfeger also feels good about all of the extracurricular activities. “There were so many activities after school,” he said, such as the 6th-grade musical, jazz band, chamber singers and board-game club.Although enrollment kept going up, “we were able to meet the tenets of a middle school.” (These include providing exploratory opportunities for children and having an advisory program.)
Kistenfeger grew up in Ottawa, Ill., and graduated from high school there. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, with a minor in English, from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington in 1974. He received a master’s degree in educational administration from Illinois State University, Normal, in 1980.
He taught English for three years at Olympia High School in Stanford, Ill., then moved to Tremont (Ill.) High School, where he taught English for four years and also coached football and basketball.
Kistenfeger played football and basketball in high school, and although he knew he wanted to coach some day, he wanted to teach too.
“The best coaches I ever had were the ones who taught academic subjects as well,” he said. “I didn’t want to spend all day in the gym and then coach at night. I liked the mental aspects of teaching English.”
His next stop was Bloomington (Ill.) High School: He was dean of students for four years and assistant principal for two years. He also coached the quarterbacks and wide receivers on the Illinois Wesleyan University football team.
Before coming to Hinsdale Middle School in 1993, Kistenfeger was principal of Bloomington Junior High School for six years.
During his fourth year, a new middle school opened. He went from overseeing 800 7th and 8th graders to overseeing 1,250 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the new school, which replaced the junior high.
That experience taught him that opening a new school “is a lot of hard work, and the first three to six months are going to be a time of learning and rolling with the punches,” he said.
“It’s a time for patience and getting to know the new school.”
Kistenfeger lives in Downers Grove with his wife, Kathy.
Last winter and spring, the 7th graders at Hinsdale began expressing anxiety about being split up for their final year in elementary school. Kistenfeger met with some of them, and that led to a series of activities designed to ease the anxiety of separating from their friends and old school.
“He spent a lot of time with the 7th graders and their teachers and tried to find ways to make the split easier for them,” said Susan Haddick, an 8th-grade science and language-arts teacher who is teaching at the new school this year.
The pupils, for example, went to an outdoor education camp for a day to talk about the transition.
“I wanted very much to go to the new school because I knew [Kistenfeger] would be there,” Haddick said. “He’s an advocate for both the students and the teachers. His leadership style is such that he empowers others to learn.”
Kistenfeger is glad he’s staying with the same age group.
“Middle school is a really interesting time in children’s lives,” he said.
Twenty years ago, he said, teachers were trained to teach elementary school or high school, and not much attention was paid to the special needs of the middle-school child. That has changed.
“There’s been a major focus on the emotional, physical and academic needs of the middle-school kids,” he said. “These students aren’t ready yet for the lock-step of high school and they don’t want to sit in their seats for six hours a day and be good little girls and boys.
“They’re also ready to think on broader levels than we’ve asked them to in the past.
“It’s fun to see the students come in as 6th graders, and then by the time they leave in 8th grade, they’re turning into young adults.”
WALTER KISTENFEGER
Position: principal, new Clarendon Hills Middle School.
Age: 48.
Education: bachelor’s degree in physical education with a minor in English, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, 1974; master’s degree in educational administration, Illinois State University, Normal, 1980.
Favorite part of the job: “Working with the kids and the parents and, especially, the teachers. I enjoy the people I work with so much, and the kids are fabulous.”
Hardest part of the job: “When I have to disappoint somebody. Sometimes you have to give people information they don’t necessarily want to hear.”
Tips: “Listen as much as you can to what people are really saying and don’t always jump to final decisions. Be willing to leave room for consideration of all sides of the issue.”
