Cris Lesniak has served St. Charles High as a Special Education teacher since 2001, and has served our country for a total of seven years in the military. Now, he is retiring from teaching.

Lesniak has been working as a teacher since 1993, and graduated from the University of Missouri, and then obtained an education degree from the University of Missouri-St Louis. In addition to this, Lesniak served four years of active duty in the Air Force in Athens, Greece, and Incirlik, Turkey. Lesniak also served in the Army Reserves for several years, serving mainly in Iraq. 

He wanted to “get out of town, do something and see the world.”

Lesniak was in the military before he decided to become a teacher, and then he joined the military again after teaching. 

“I think I wanted to go back in the military… because I had students that were graduating from high school that were going to Iraq, so it was of interest of me to see how that was going for a lot of people who were the age of my own students.”

Lesniak will miss building relationships with his students the most, and he will also miss the camaraderie with the people he works with. 

“I think that I had a really unconventional upbringing so I’m in a job where I deal with a lot of unconventional students in unconventional situations, so I had to be flexible.”

Once Lesniak retires, he will attend to his hobby farm, where he grows chokeberries. If Lesniak met a new teacher, he would advise them that kids like structure. They may act like they don’t like structure in their lives, but the truth is that they do.

“Just try to treat your students like they’re your own kid.”

From being a teacher, Lesniak has learned to be patient with people. 

“It’s a journey, not a destination.”