West De Pere High School Industrial Technology teacher, Chris Glinski. (Photo courtesy of West De Pere School District)
DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A West De Pere High School teacher was surprised with $50,000 for his work in helping students build future careers.
Industrial tech teacher Chris Glinski is one of 25 national winners of the 2025 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.
“The mission of Tools for Schools is to increase understanding, support and investment in skilled trades education in U.S. public schools. We believe every student, across America, deserves the opportunity to learn about skilled trades from an excellent teacher,” said Mark Clark with Harbor Freight.
That’s exactly how students would describe Glinski. West De Pere High School senior, Easton Labelle said, “He’s a pretty good teacher. He treats everybody like friends, but he also knows when to give guidance and helps everybody out as much as they can when they don’t know what they’re doing.”
The son of a tech ed teacher, Glinski has been teaching at West De Pere for more than 20 years.
He said the award is validation for what he and his teaching partners do, adding, “I guess some justification that we’re doing good things around here and that our kids are having success based off of the program that we have cultivated here.”
West De Pere offers welding, machining, automotive, engineering, drafting and woods.
Back in April, district residents approved a nearly $10-million referendum to expand the tech ed program.
With improvements and expansion on the way, Glinski looks forward to figuring out how he and the department will spend the prize money.
He said, “To name something right out of the gate it would be probably not fair for the program or for the kids or for all of us to just put it on the spot but it guaranteed we’ll have a positive impact for the kids.”
In addition to the $35,000 Glinski won on behalf of the school, he will go home with $15,000 for himself.
Glinksi, a Pulaski native, said his son is graduating from Pulaski in the Spring so the family may use the money to go on scuba diving trip out of the country.
In his industrial technology program and role as CTE department head, Glinski aims to provide students with the skills to thrive in any field, and empowers students to pursue diverse pathways upon graduation, whether they choose to enter the workforce, pursue apprenticeships, or go to college. Students in Glinski’s program score an average of three points higher on the ACT than peers and can earn early-college credits at UW-Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
He was nationally recognized for helping close the gap on a shortfall of more than 93,000 skilled-trades workers in Wisconsin. Construction and manufacturing employers consistently cite workforce shortages as their top challenge.
In total, Harbor Freight Tools for Schools is awarding $1.5 million in prizes to 25 skilled trades teachers nationwide.
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