The Gutke family has been a name in local education for a long time. This involvement has impacted so many students and families along the way throughout their teaching and coaching careers.
Mr. Jeffery Gutke has taught Spanish for 31 years and 20 of those have been at Lakes Community High School. Mr. Gutke is retiring in two years with the class of 2026. Even throughout all these years of teaching Spanish he didn’t even originally plan on teaching the subject.
“I won a scholarship in high school to take Spanish, however, I wasn’t a Spanish major until I was a junior, I was a Spanish minor. I always did well in Spanish,” he said. Little did Mr. Gutke know, taking Spanish as a major in college would affect his future forever. He met his wife Carol Gutke in a Spanish class at Northern Illinois University. They both shared the same love for the subject and both decided to become teachers to share their love and knowledge to the younger generations.
Mrs. Gutke has taught Spanish for 32 total years, which happens to be one more year than Mr. Gutke. However, her teaching career is only lasting three more years as she plans to retire in 2027. She began her teaching career at the high school level until being offered to teach at Antioch Upper Grade School. She quickly realized that this was the right fit for her as she has stayed there for numerous years and is staying until retirement. They have never taught at the same school, which is something Mrs. Gutke thinks could have been a positive experience.
“I think we would work well together,” Mrs. Gutke said. “We have been married for 30 years, raising three boys together, and we are still each other’s best friend. Every day we talk about how the day went. Sometimes we even share lesson plan ideas and activities. I can see one possible challenge if we taught in the same school: we could run out of crazy ‘listen to what this kid did in class today’ stories.”
This amazing relationship they formed helped them raise three wonderful children. One of those children has decided to follow in his parents footsteps and be a part of Antioch/Lakes school district. The youngest son, Ben Gutke, is an JV baseball coach at Antioch Community High School. He wants to give back to the program that formed him as an incredible baseball player. Although he played baseball through all four years of high school, he became a college football player. This program made Ben feel very welcome throughout his time there which makes him want to give back.
“I really enjoy coaching baseball, and I am happy making a positive impact at Antioch, so I don’t envision leaving the program in the near future,” Ben said. “If a better opportunity arises, then I am always open to pivoting.”
Even though he followed in his parents’ footsteps by staying in the school district, he has no plan of teaching like his parents. He said he has no intent of becoming a teacher along with the fact that he would be several credit hours short of becoming a Spanish teacher. “I received college credit from my high school AP score but didn’t take a Spanish course in college.” Even growing up in a household of two amazing Spanish teachers couldn’t persuade him to become a teacher. However, in his three years of being an ACHS coach and two years of coaching prime athletics, he has already affected many young athletes who are inspired by him – just like his parents.
