After 22 years of changing the lives of many students and bringing humor and positive attitude to his coworkers, business teacher Michael Maaske is preparing to retire after the end of this school year. During his time at AT, he has taught Introduction to Business, Keyboarding, Consumer Management, Economics, Sheltered Consumer Management, Business Law, and many more business related classes.
Maaske’s contribution to the community does not end there, as he has also coached girl’s basketball and he has been the Debate team’s coach.
As a son of a math teacher and a PE teacher, Maaske’s choice to become a teacher has not been too unexpected.
“I think it’s kind of in my blood because when I was a high school student I told my parents who were both teachers, that I would never be a teacher. I started out in the workforce for about 13 years and then decided I wanted to change to teaching. I have lots of aunts and uncles that are teachers and I wanted to make a difference,” shared Maaske.
The CTE department is going to miss Maaske’s humor and kindness.
“I’ve been really fortunate to be in the business department because we are a lot like a family and it’s always been that way where it’s really comfortable and that’s one thing I’ll miss a lot, as well as other faculty that have helped in many different ways throughout the years”
His close friends and colleagues, Jeff Laschinski and Joe Mahoney, recall many positive memories of Maaske. One particular story was about a gesture from one of his classes, which resulted from Maaske telling students stories about his experience as a door salesman.
“I got a storage room back over off of my room, there’s a door back there that one of his classes of students gave him one time and they all signed the door. He told so many stories about the door company, so they got him a door and wrote notes to him, so that was pretty funny,” recalled Laschinski.
The friendship formed by the trio became such a normalcy that some referred to them as “the Three Amigos.”
“He’s a great teacher and colleague, he’s always willing to share. He’s a nice guy, he likes cracking jokes. We have fun going back and forth on the Cups and the White Sox,” said Laschinski.
Mahoney felt similarly about their friend. “He’s always planned, he’s always where he needs to be, he’s prepared. He’s been a good friend for a long, long time. You know, we all look out for each other, but he’s always been good about that,” he said.
Although the year coming to an end means saying goodbye to a major part of Maaske’s life, he is excited to begin his retirement.
“I’m looking forward to having a lot of flexibility and time. I like to fish and golf and garden, so I’ll be doing those things, and travel. I’m looking forward to all those, spending time with my wife doing those things. I want to go overseas to Europe, that’s on the bucket list.”
AT thanks Maaske for so many years of service and the effort put into his work, wishing him the best for his retirement.
