Don't Try To Get One Over On Nicolet's New Principal

New Nicolet High School Principal Greg Kabara started last Friday. Amid a flurry of meetings and handshake introductions, he carved out some time to answer 5 Questions From Patch:

Who or what inspired you to make education your career?
It was Tom Dewing, a health teacher at Whitefish Bay High School. I saw him out to dinner at the Highland House just the other day. I had talked about going into math and engineering, that was my passion. He said, you've got a real knack for teaching and talking to kids.

I spent a lot of time tutoring in the calculus lab in college, and those words stayed in my head.

What drew you to Nicolet?
I'd been a high school guy and on the North Shore, and I knew Nicolet was a great school. I want to add to that tradition, contribute to it and help grow it.

What is the first thing you did on your very first day at Nicolet?
I think the first thing I did, just to get sense of the physical layout of the school, was take a tour of the building. Which was very helpful, knowing the history of building and why it was built the way it was.

What is the worst tardy/absent excuse a student ever gave you?
It was at Whitefish Bay. A girl's grandmother told me she couldn't make it to school because she was in the shower.

I asked if it would be OK if myself and a teacher came over. We arrived, and the grandmother knocked on the bathroom door and said, "Get out of the shower, your principal's here."

What food have you tried that you'll never eat again?
Snake meat. It was some time when I was in the Marine Corps. It wasn't something I'd want to go back to.