Meet Your Neighbor

Tom Yelich

April 16, 2007

Principal
Eastside Elementary School

For Eastside Elementary Principal Tom Yelich, the end of the school year has traditionally meant gearing up for the high school's summer program. This year, there's a new assigment.

On the last day of school, as he sends his Eastsiders off to three months of carefree fun, Yelich will bid farewell to a job he's performed nearly every day for the past 40 years.

On June 30, Yelich will officially retire as one of the Sun Prairie's longest-serving and most-admired principals.

After a short time with Yelich, one quickly learns that he is much more than a principal; he's a historian who has lived and worked amidst great change within the school district.

Yelich came to Sun Prairie in 1976 -- when the population sign read 8,000 and there wasn't much west of the Wisconsin Cheeseman but marshland and cat tails.

Yelich had been teaching Spanish at Wausau's D.C. Everst High School. He had just earned his master's degree in school administration and landed a job as assistant principal at Sun Prairie High School. Eventually, he took over running the high school's summer program -- a job he continued even after becoming Eastside Elementary's principal 14 years ago.

"I have loved having that connection with the high school because all [parents and kids] at one time or another will funnel through there," he said. "The high school is the one place where all kids will come, unless they go to a private school ... so you get to know a lot of people."

One of the biggest local issues when Yelich first came to Sun Prairie was crowding at the high school.

"When I came we were so overcrowded the ticket booth for the auditorium was the office for the pupil service director," he explained. "Rooms above and next to the auditorium that weren't very functional had to be used for classrooms.

"In '76, the high school was 125,000 square feet and they had just had a referendum that failed a few years before to increase the size," recalled Yelich. A new referendum passed in 1977 and the district doubled the size of the high school.

Southside Elementary was right next door to the high school. Eventually, the elementary school was annexed onto the high school in order to accommodate space needs.

"You'd walk through a wooden tunnel between the two buildings," said Yelich. "It had a courtyard similar to Eastside and Bird that is now the high school library."

Many students were living with their families in the military housing located in Vandenburg Heights neighborhood, noted the principal. "When I went over there to meet with parents, they actually had a guard at the gate. When the government closed Vandenburg Heights as a military base, the student population dropped backed down to 1,100 [from about 1,500]."

Yelich said today's school district population is much bigger than people realize.

"When you think of Sun Prairie High School, you think of the city and say its 22,000," said Yelich. "But the district is made up of all these housing developments and that has a big impact on your school numbers. [The district population is] actually between 40,000 and 50,000."

And when it comes to addressing current space needs at the high school, Yelich has years of knowledge and personal experience to share.

In addition to teaching in Wausau, he's taught at a small high school in Omro and at an Oshkosh high school with 3,000 students.

"That was just too big and that's why Oshkosh went to two high schools eventually," he said.

"I've seen it both ways," he added, "and ideally the size of a school -- where the children get to know each other, there's unity and staff know each other -- is about 1,000 to 1,200. That's my feeling.

"I like a smaller size because from the standpoint of a building principal, you see the unity of the staff and children and the connection between the children and the school. I went to a high school that was extremely large and you really didn't know anybody."

When it comes to kids, Yelich believe they are always a reflection of exactly what's going on in society.

"When you go back to the mid-seventies and look at how children had their hair and dressed and then look at athletes and movies stars, there was always that reflection.

"I was fortunate to have a roommate in college who was black and I got to know the comfort level and the connectedness between the two cultures.

"I think that's hitting Sun Prairie now," he said. "It's not that we haven't had different cultures in the community, but we are definitely becoming more diverse and that's a big change. How people respond to it and accept each other and work with each other -- I think that's important."

"I really believe that kids aren't much different than they've always been, and I think that's why I've enjoyed working with them for as long as I have," said Yelich. "Kids will be kids at different levels. Children grow up faster nowadays and that's partially because of technology and television. Kids are also more worldly -- they've traveled more than they have before."

"I think sometimes you can get misconceptions of what's actually happening by not hearing things from the source," said Yelich. "When you go back to when I was assistant principal at the high school, there were fights then, too. I had to deal with fights and people not getting along.

"When we talk about drugs and alcohol, I met with the police to talk about it and about gangs," he added. "I don't think it's changed a lot. Your community is a reflection of everyone around you and what happens is that reflection."

"I have so many great memories," said Yelich. "There are a lot of situations you get into because of the nature of your job. For example, when I was assistant principal, I oversaw extracurricular activities. The junior class advisor was expecting a baby. The prom was taking place at the Angell Park Pavillion.

"Within a half hour, she came up to me and said, `Tom you're the junior class advisor -- my water just broke.'"

I didn't have to deliver the baby, but I did have to run the prom and the grand march and everything else and it all worked out.

"Back then, I was in charge of all the ticket sales for football and basketball; chaperoned the dances till midnight; and back then I was the sub caller for all the teachers.

"My day started at 5 in the morning and went till 10 at night," Yelich recalled. "Fridays were the worst because I got calls at 5 a.m., would cover the school day, and then have to get the tickets ready for the football game. At half time, I'd collect and count the money, take it to the bank and deposit it, then come back just in time to start the dance -- which went till midnight.

"There are so many humorous things that took place over the years," he said. "I have enjoyed all three levels I've worked at because the children at those ages are so different from each other and the things they do."

For the past 40 years, Yelich has started the school year greeting hundreds of eager learners. But when Sun Prairie school bells ring this fall, he will have transitioned to a new role: Escorting his youngest granddaughter to her first day of kindergarten.

Yelich said he doesn't expect to be bored in retirement. With seven grandkids, he and his wife, Gail, plan on enjoying all their activities.

He hopes to do some volunteering and take in his hobbies of golf, fishing and hunting.

"When you reach this stage of your life and you still have options to do things," he concluded, "It's a good feeling."