Most co-workers are mere acquaintances and some are close friends, but here at Libertyville High School, quite a few of the staff members are actually married. Pairings across nearly every department have emerged and flourished, making for fun realizations among students and staff alike. ‘Tis the month of love and romance, and there’s no better time to take a closer look at a few of the many noteworthy teacher couples.
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Brown
Q: How did you two meet?
Dr. Brown: Mrs. Brown and I both work on the fall musical. The year that we did “Cats” was the fall of 2007, our theater director, Mr. Frawley, had a motorcycle accident, so the bulk of the work fell on our shoulders to teach the music and the choreography while he was recovering. We were working very closely together, more than we had in the past. That experience sort of led to us; we started dating after “Cats” was over, and things progressed from there.
Q: What’s the best part about working with your spouse?
Mrs. Brown: I don’t think there’s anybody that understands what I go through as a teacher and the passion behind all of the art that we get to do as him. He inspires me in everything that I do, and it’s great having the same vacation schedule and the same days off.
Q: Do you have any funny stories about working together?
Mrs. Brown: It’s really funny when students think that I can sing and-
Dr. Brown: That I can dance, which is not the case-
Mrs. Brown: And when I try to sing or when you try to dance, they laugh at us because they realize that we really can’t.
Dr. Brown: When the [students] see me try to dance, they’ll say “Oh no you have to stop. That does not look good.” So that is a common misconception. They also think that when we go home, Mrs. Brown teaches [our family] yoga in our living room when in fact we’re not; we’re usually just watching “The Bachelor.”
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Gooris
Q: How did you two meet?
Mrs. Gooris: Well, at school we knew who each other were and then we got together with some friends outside of school, so that’s how we got to know each other a little bit better.
Q: How often do you see each other throughout the day?
Mr. Gooris: This entire year we’ve had the same lunch so we get to eat lunch together, which is nice. Other times, if we don’t have a common period, I might just drop in sometimes. There’s sometimes days where we don’t see each other at all.
Q: Do you have any funny stories about working together?
Mr. Gooris: People confuse us with other couples especially with Mr. Loika and Mrs. Loika because at times people thought that-
Mrs. Gooris: Mrs. Loika and him were engaged!
Mr. Gooris: They get the pairing confused! They think Mrs. Gooris is with Mr. Loika, and Mrs. Loika is with me, or when they had their baby, someone congratulated me.
Mrs. Gooris: Like all the time! This has been going on since both of us started dating forever ago! So it’s pretty funny; we find that part entertaining.
Mr. Gooris: Sometimes our students who have us in common, her for math and me for P.E., will communicate messages to us like “your wife said this” or “your husband said that.”
Mrs. Gooris: “Can you tell your husband we want to play games today?” Like, yeah, I’ll work on that. One time, one kid was like, “I talked about hexagons in P.E., are you proud of me?”
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Wiggins
Q: How did you two meet?
Mrs. Wiggins: Mr. Wiggins and I met here at Libertyville High School. We were both hired here in the fall of 2004 with a lot of other teachers that are still here today, and we became really good friends for a long time, and after a while we started dating.
Q: What’s the best part about working with your spouse?
Mrs. Wiggins: One thing that’s nice about us being together is that we understand each other. I do think there’s something about a teacher’s schedule that not everyone understands. When we’re exhausted at the end of a week or we’ve had a rough day, we understand each other. It’s also nice too if you ever need lunch money, but he’s usually coming to me more than I’m coming to him!
Mr. Wiggins: One of the major things that brought us together was the love of teaching and working with kids. Because your occupation is such a large part of your life, sharing such a commonality and mutual interest is huge in any successful relationship. Not only that, but it’s a blessing to be able to share in the experiences of working at such an incredible school as Libertyville.
Q: How often do you two see each other throughout the day?
Mr. Wiggins: When Mrs. Wiggins was teaching English, her classroom was Room 206 which is at the very end of the main corridor upstairs well-off the “beaten path.” My classroom, on the other hand, is at the absolute opposite end of that main second floor corridor in Room 221. As a result, during those years, we never saw each other at LHS unless it was in the copy room. Ever since Mrs. Wiggins began working in the library, however, I am more able to stop-in to see her because the library is more centrally located in relation to my room.
Q: Do you have any funny stories about working together?
Mrs. Wiggins: One thing that students usually find entertaining is that on our very first date, we went to Borders, the bookstore that has now closed down, and we graded papers together. He read his geography papers, and I read my English papers, and then we had dinner after that.
