Lani SneedAbilene Reporter-News
For the new Abilene ISD superintendent, education is not just a job. It is his life's purpose.
Dr. John Kuhn brings over 27 years of experience in education to Abilene, but he never thought he would end up in the classroom, or leading a district of approximately 17,000 teachers and students.
Didn't want to be a teacher
Growing up in the small town of Perrin, 16 miles north of Mineral Wells, Kuhn graduated high school in three years with 16 classmates.
His dad worked as a Dallas firefighter, and his mother was a homemaker and part-time substitute teacher. With three older sisters all pursuing teaching, he wanted to pave his own path by becoming a journalist.
However, his plans changed after finding out Tarleton State University did not offer journalism as a major at the time.
"So, I majored in English because to me that was the next best thing, right?" Kuhn said.
Happy with his choice, Kuhn's mom insisted he earn a teaching certification as a job security net. Despite his resistance in becoming a teacher, his mom wore him down .
Kuhn graduated from college in 1994 and did not feel prepared to enter the classroom teaching students only a couple of years younger than him.
"I knew I was gonna be very, very young getting out of college," he said. "I didn't think teaching high school was a good idea because I would have kids that were, you know, 17-18 years old, and I'm barely 20."
While trying to figure out his next step after college, Kuhn heard about and was encouraged to participate in a missionary program called the Journeyman.
"At this point, I've been pretty sheltered in Perrin, Texas," he said. "I've never been out of the country, never been on an airplane. I thought it sounded like a pretty good adventure. It'll give me a couple of years, so when I do come back, if I did want to go into teaching, I wouldn't be as young."
Kuhn spent two years living in Peru working on waterwheel drilling projects and medical missions.
"We'd go up into these little villages that didn't have clean water, and we would drill water wells. We would weigh babies and give protein supplements and things like that to moms and their children," he said.
While on the mission, Kuhn met his wife Noelia, and they married when they came back to the states.
After living and working abroad, Kuhn wanted to find work that made a difference in communities — much like the mission work he had previously done.
He applied to a job opening for a Spanish teacher at Graford ISD, a short drive from his hometown of Perrin and spent five years driving a school bus and teaching high school students.
"Very quickly I realized I liked teaching. I liked school. I liked being funny with teenagers and being sarcastic with them and them being sarcastic back," Kuhn said.
"I liked the camaraderie among teaching staff, and I made a lot of friends with my colleagues. I just decided, 'Yeah, I think this is probably the career for me,'" he said.
From Spanish teacher to Abilene superintendent
During his time as a Spanish teacher at Graford, Kuhn impressed his administrators with his ability to handle administrative tasks, which opened the door to new opportunities.
He enrolled in a master's program in educational administration through Tarleton State and moved to Mineral Wells ISD to gain experience in a bigger school district.
"After a year and a half working as a Spanish teacher in Mineral Wells, they hired me as assistant principal at their high school where I did that for three years," Kuhn said. "When my son started kindergarten, I moved down to his campus to be assistant principal, but I did not stay there long."
Kuhn moved back up to the high school in Mineral Wells and worked as principal while simultaneously working on his superintendent certificate.
After earning his certificate, Kuhn served as superintendent in Perrin-Whitt CISD for six years and Mineral Wells ISD for eight years.
Kuhn never thought he would leave Mineral Wells ISD until he saw the opening in Abilene.
"It was hard for me to leave," he said. "I knew it would surprise and hurt people that I was leaving. I think a lot of people assumed I'd be there until I retired, and that was my plan."
The opening was an opportunity he could not pass up. Kuhn put his name in the hat, and the board thought he was a good fit for the district.
"The heartbeat of the community."
The initial draw that enticed Kuhn to apply was the visible support for the students, teachers and school district from the AISD School Board.
"When I'm in a school district, I'm 100% all in for my kids, for my teams, for my community," he said. "And I want to work with people who have that same value system."
"The thing that makes education perfect for me was the same thing that made me enjoy mission work," he said. "I feel like my life has meaning when I'm doing education, and I feel like I'm making the world a better place."
Kuhn's mission for AISD is to improve student academic performance, and the district's public image in the community.
"The school is the heartbeat of the community," he said. "If the school district is struggling, the whole community struggling. If a school district is thriving, the whole community is thriving."
"Not only do I feel the weight of improving schools, I'll bear that weight on my shoulders, and I understand that's what I've signed up for," Kuhn said.
There are people rooting for Abilene ISD to succeed, and when district officials make smart decisions, the district will get results, he said.
Making a difference.
When reflecting on his career, Kuhn recalls a pivotal experience that reaffirmed his choice in becoming a teacher and an administrator.
Early in his career as a Spanish teacher, he had to translate to a Spanish-speaking student and her family that her mother passed away in a car accident.
"I think that was an event where I realized that this is more than just teaching Spanish, you know. What I'm doing matters in a bigger sense," he said.
He carried this belief into his positions as superintendent.
"Getting into district administration, you're further from the classroom," Kuhn said. "But I've realized as a superintendent I'm still making a difference for kids by ensuring that we're running a quality school district.
"And if I do my job well, I make a positive difference for a lot more kids than just the 120 kids I might see as a Spanish teacher in the course of the school year."
To see change and make a difference, the school district has to do the right things for the right reasons, Kuhn said.
