‘Teacher of the Year,’ knows how to connect with his KC students, they’re neighbors
This interview is part of the third season of Voices of Kansas City, a project created in collaboration with KKFI Community Radio to highlight the experiences of Kansas Citians making an impact on the community. All the episodes are available at the KKFI.org site https://kkfi.org/program/voices-of-kansas-city/ and listen to KKFI live on 90.1 FM, or at KKFI.org. Do you know someone who should be featured in a future season of Voices of Kansas City? Tell us about them using this form.
Vincent Gunnels has been described as an educator whom many parents hope their children have throughout their lives. Intelligent, caring, thoughtful, and driven.
Gunnels has been a teacher for nearly 15 years. He started as a camp counselor, and his journey into the field of education isn’t the typical one, as he will tell anyone. However, he accepted the opportunities that life presented him, which led him to become Teacher of the Year at Central Middle School this past school year.
When The Star observed Gunnels walking through the halls during summer school, assisting teachers and students, Gunnels’ mantra of relationship building was clear in how he interacted with each teacher and student he encountered there.
Because of his displayed passion for education and mentoring, The Star asked Gunnels to participate in this year’s Voices of Kansas City, focused on Black educators in Kansas City. He joined PJ Green, breaking news reporter, in the studio at KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio, to talk about how he became an educator and his knack for developing relationships that are meaningful for his students and his colleagues.
The Star: What are all your titles?
Vincent Gunnels: I’m an educator, of course. I’m a father, first. Also, a mentor to first-year teachers and those who want to be teachers. I also mentor Black men in education in a setting called The BLOC, which stands for Brothers Liberating Our Community. I’m also a mentor for a program called Teachers Like Me, run by Dr. Trinity Davis (PhD), for individuals that want to be a teacher.
And she really caters to all Black men and women, in her program. With the BLOC, of course, we focus with all males, but our main focus is Black males in education. Because at the end of the day, there’s only 2% of us.
The burnout ratio is huge. They may start off, but they don’t last long. So the mentorship that we bring to the table feeds them and fuels them with more energy for the need to want to stay.
So we create that space where we can talk, vent, help, share situations or scenarios, and hopefully, they stay in education.
You’re a lifelong Kansas City man. What part of the city are you from?
I grew up, I guess you would consider it the Eastside of Kansas City. And what I mean by the Eastside is between Prospect (Avenue) and Van Brunt (Boulevard).
Did you think that your route would be education?
When I was a kid, I had my dream. I always knew I was going to be a firefighter. But that turned away real quick when I really didn’t like being around grease in the kitchen, so I knew I wasn’t going to be a firefighter.
One of the titles you also didn’t hit on is Central Middle School Teacher of the Year.
I also made it to the Kansas City Public School District Teacher of the Year finalist. That was a huge, huge opportunity.
Just like a lot of teachers, no one gets into the profession to get the awards. What is that like, just to see some of your work be honored like that?
I think, at the end of the day, it shows appreciation. It lets me know that somebody recognizes what I bring into the building. And it also, I guess you would say, fuels my fire, gives me a reason to want to keep doing what I’m doing.
A fact about me is that I am a product of the Kansas City Public School District. So I actually graduated from Central High School. I look out my classroom every day and it reminds me where I came from. But also, it also reminds me that there’s a lot of young boys that grew up just like me. A lot of them right now don’t know what they’re going to be doing in the next 10 or 15 years. So sometimes just feeding them with stories and different scenarios, aspiration just to move forward in life, just to try things.
You got into education just by being pushed by people?
Oh, yeah. My bachelor’s is in criminal justice administration. There was no kind of link with education. My master’s is in urban education.
You started off working in summer camps, right?
It was like LINC (Local Investment Commission). But LINC didn’t have the title they have now, it was just like after-school care. I had a friend that knew somebody. My grandmother retired from the Kansas City Public School as a secretary at the Board of Education. So she had some type of ties or knew somebody. Coincidentally my grandmother and one of my friends was talking about the same person that I needed to meet, that would give me the opportunity to work after school.
That’s really the starter kit, I guess you may say. And I never realized what I was doing would lead me to having this conversation right now.
Who was the educator that first got you into the field?
I’m going to tell the story of Dr. (Jennifer) Malone (PhD) here. I never told her this, but she was probably the one key piece that put me in the game.
When I first got into working at preschool, which is now LINC, I was assigned to a group of third-grade boys. And I’m in school, and she had a daughter — shout out to Tempest, that’s her daughter’s name. But Tempest is a very smart young lady. But she was in kindergarten reading these chapter books.
I had this group of third-grade boys. How afterschool kind of works is the logistics are, you eat your snack, you go read, you go exercise, you do activity then the rest of the day is kind of free time ‘til your parents come get you. And this particular young lady, Tempest, she was always wanting to read a book. She didn’t want to run around. That wasn’t her thing.
Some of the teachers were purposely like, “Well Tempest, you can read the book after you do this or after you do that.” She was like, ‘I just want to read my book.’ Eventually, one day, I had this group of third graders and some of them could read very well, but some couldn’t. Some that couldn’t, I would either tell them, grab a book, draw something, or I would just have to read something for 20 or 30 minutes.
But then I had Tempest. So I said, “I know she likes to read, so I’m telling Tempest ‘Well, you want to come with me? You can read to these boys.” Whatever book she chose I let her read.
Tempest didn’t want to go back with other teachers or the other staff members. She just wanted to stay with me so her mom would always pick her up from me. When she came to pick her up. She was like, “Well, my daughter talks about you all the time on the weekends. You ever thought about getting a higher education?”
In my head, I’m listening to her, but I’m not saying nothing back because I’m already in school. But I think she was kind of judging me based on what I drove to the school and the cornrows probably in my hair. I probably was judging her too, because I’m listening to her and I’m like ‘Here we go with this parent.”
So she gave me this kind of look, and she was like, “Well, don’t let the clothes fool you. Before I come pick up my daughter I’ll go work out. So when you see me, I got my workout clothes on.’’ She was like, “But I’m a principal over here at RJ Delano,” which is a school that has probably been closed now for about ten years. I think they closed it in like 2010.
She’s like, ‘You need to go to school, get some hours, Because if you had the hours, I would hire you, you’re good with kids.’ And I kind of looked at her. I’m like, ‘I am in school’.
She tells me, “Well go home and fill this out. Apply.”
Went home, filled the application out. Again, her daughter’s with me when she picked her up the next time. So I was like, ‘Hey I filled that out.’ She’s like, ‘Okay, well, summer school starts such and such day.”
And she was telling me, “I’m the principal and I pick my summer staff. I’ll see you at 8 a.m. in the morning. We get off about 4 p.m.”
So I made it work. I actually spoke to my grandpa father figure. He passed away a few years ago. He was like, ‘You need to try it. Anything else you doing out here will still be here. Your friends will still be there. Try it, just do it.’ And I did it.
I’ll never forget, I made it through the summer. She was like, ‘Well, school starts, next month, in August. Are you going to come back?’
“I got class, I got to go back to school.” She was like, ‘Well, when are your classes?’ and I could have probably made up something, but by this time, I had kind of learned in the game that I don’t want to go to class on Mondays and Fridays. I didn’t want to get up. So I’m telling her I got class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said, ‘”Ok, well, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you gonna come here.” I’m just like Yes, ma’am. Ok.
That was really like how I got into the school district, you know. This was before 2010 because they closed RJ Delano in 2010. And that final year before they left, she went to Kansas City, Kansas. She’s still there, too. I still speak to her periodically whenever I got something good going on, I always text her and let her know.
It’s crazy coincidences too because if I fast-forward to when I was getting my master’s, she actually was one of my professors. If think back on a lot of stuff like I used to say it was luck, but it was blessings.
So what’s another ironic thing about it. When my son was born, she was excited because she was about to have a grandson, her first grandson. My son and her grandson were born on the same day.
So, eventually they closed RJ Delano. The students that were based there, they put them over it at East (High School).
I was at this high school setting. A guy named Darren Washington. He still works with the Kansas City Public School District, but he’s over student discipline. He was coming up to see these certain students that were supposed to be having behavior-type problems.
A lot of times they would be in small settings of the classroom, but if the teacher was absent, no other teacher wanted to go in there with these students. They used to be like, ‘Hey, Mr. Gunnels, you want to go?’
We didn’t have no issues whenever they were with me, Mr. Washington was coming up to check on them. He was like, ‘Hey, man, what do you be doing?”
Eventually, that opportunity came. The district hired five behavior interventionists. So I was one of those. But I was in an elementary setting, Crispus Attucks (elementary school) on 24th and Prospect. It’s Wendell Phillips Elementary at Attucks now. So here I am.
When I went to the school, they had over 600 behavior referrals in the past school year. When I was there for four years, we had maybe 100.
Shout out to Jessica Bassett. She was a principal there; she’s the assistant superintendent at Raytown (school district) now.
What sports do you coach at Central?
I coach track, basketball, and football. So I’m busy, and the seasons are kind of back to back. So every day, I’m averaging 12 to 15 hours a day, if you count the after-school, waiting on parents to come get the kids. Not to mention, if we have a 7 p.m. game.
What do you think is the key to connecting with the kids and making sure that they don’t have those behavioral referrals and things like that?
Every day, a relationship should get stronger. So I think that’s the key moment, but also being vulnerable. I think in education, some people are scared to be vulnerable, tell them their ups and downs, their struggles. Sometimes kids think the teachers, they put them on a pedestal.
‘Oh your life is just perfect.’ No, it’s not. I’m struggling right now, but I’m here. You know, ‘I didn’t want to come to school.’ I didn’t want to come to work today, but I’m here. Just being able to be vulnerable with them. To show equity inside the classroom.
But also, to be able to relate, having grace every day. Not worrying about what something else is going on, but keeping in mind what somebody else may be doing, or what they’re going through. I think what makes my situation a little bit different is, and I’ve been doing this for a while, so I can actually say this, but a lot of teachers just working in the school, they’re not from around here like I am.
So with me being right around the corner from the school — you know growing up both of my grandparents’ houses were within a square-mile radius from the school. When I was going to Central High School, if we missed the bus, we could walk.
But just to know what’s going on in the neighborhood. There’s been small situations, for example, where I know certain students stay on a certain block and I know certain things happened on that block last night, and now they’re at school. They’re probably tired, head down. But the teacher doesn’t know.
In summer school, you’re walking around but you got the cornrows in, you got your fresh Nikes on, you are yourself. And you don’t try to code switch. You just go in there as yourself and you talk to the people.
Right and what’s crazy is in summer school, a lot of those kids, this is my first time meeting them, but it’s just senses. You know if you are uncomfortable when somebody walks in the room. So it’s just senses. Just having that spirit, that vibe, that energy, that they can relate to.
How do you relay your personal philosophy to your mentees and other young educators?
My biggest philosophy is the lack of preparation leads to a quick burnout. I tell every resident — residents are the people I mentor — sometimes you have to be prepared for whatever, not just on the education side of what you going to teach or what you’re going to be talking about. But be prepared for those students who may have had a bad night.
Be prepared for some of those students who probably didn’t get to eat the night before. Be prepared for those parents that you may have to have encounters with. I think that’s one thing I got a step ahead of too. I graduated from Central High School and the age I am, a lot of these parents, I probably went to school with or know the students’ auntie or cousin or somebody.
It’s a different feeling when you’re dealing with a parent and we come in and talk about their child and I can honestly look at them and be like, ‘Hey, they kind of doing the same stuff you was doing.’
Versus, somebody else that doesn’t look like them or sound like them, say, ‘Hey, I think they need this. I think they need that.’ I’ve actually been called into meetings just to help teachers explain what they’re trying to say to parents. Just for the transparency.
Is there a disconnect right now between teachers and parents about what’s best for their kids?
I think it’s always a disconnect when everybody’s not on the same page. What we may think is important, they may not think is important. You know, everybody’s culture is different. And just because they’re raised in the same neighborhood or the same block doesn’t mean they believe in the same thing. So I think sometimes that can be the disconnect.
I work with some teachers before, and their like, “These kids just don’t want to learn.” No, it’s just what you teaching, they don’t want to hear. Even the curriculum, sometimes I have to switch it up to keep it engaging. But at the end of the day, I tell all my scholars, when you take this test, the test is not meant for you. When they take these state tests, it’s not meant for us. I tell them about my struggles when I had to keep trying to pass to get certified.
I didn’t pass for the first time, not on the second or the third time. It took me multiple times.
Wow!
And to be honest with you, I almost lost faith in myself when I really finally passed. When you go take the certification test, they print out your results. I’m so used to, ‘You didn’t pass, you didn’t pass.’ I just wanted the paper and to walk out. He’s like, “You don’t want to hear the good news?”
I’m like, ‘What good news?’ It’s history though.
You mentioned your son, what kind of things are you seeing from the classroom that you tell him all the time?
I try to balance it right. It’s a thin line in balancing. My son goes to Kansas City Public Schools. He just turned 15. So some of his classmates, they’re in my class now, or they went to his school and he knows them. I don’t want him to go through that ‘Well, your daddy, is this’ or ‘You got it good.’
I talk to him like I talk to all my students, you know what I mean?
I want the best for him, just like I want the best for everybody. But it’s a very thin line being that teacher, but a parent. And some teachers don’t know that this is my son. So when I’m advocating for him on an educational tip and I get to speaking the academic language, code-switching. They’re like, “Well, where are you at?”
I got to learn how to separate it too, because I remember a few years ago, if I would come up to the school, he’d be like “Dad, just dress like a dad, don’t dress like a teacher.”
I tell him, certain situations require certain methods. You gotta know when to turn it on and when to turn it off.
In this generation of youth, what do you think is the biggest thing that they need right now from their leaders and educators?
I think they just need the sometimes brutal truth and sometimes telling them the truth hurts. I think they need consistency. I think they need someone that can stay committed, not just while they’re in their classroom, but for the rest of their life.,
I got students, that as long as I been doing this now they’re graduating. “Mr. Gunnels, you wanna come to my graduation? You only get a few tickets, but I want you to come.” That’s huge.
Just being a lifetime coach. Someone that they know they can always kind of depend on but also being able to kick back and relate and learn from them. And you learn from them. You learn more every day. Education is a two-way street sometimes a three-way.
You’re still relatively young in your teaching career. What kind of skills do you still hope to gain?
They’ve been in my head a lot about getting my doctorate, so I may take it up. When I got my master’s, I took it a lot differently than when I got my bachelor’s. Education is a lifestyle. So being able to commit yourself 110%. I got to be ready to do that.
Do you think you’re ready to take that next step into administration?
I’ve been asked for years. I know I am, but also I’m a father first. So it’s certain activities I know my son likes to do after school. I know being an administrator, at times you can’t be supportive when you got that role. And I’d rather support my son over trying to make some money.
