“During all these years, Mr. Jasnoch has been a great colleague who brought his knowledge of history and government to the minds of hundreds of students, while also mentoring many young teachers and developing a reputation as an honest, straightforward, and dependable colleague.”
Mr. DeSecki, lead teacher of the O’Plaine Social Studies department, had these words to share when asked about Mr. Jasnoch. As the school year ends and seniors depart, so will Mr. Jasnoch on whatever adventure he pleases. After 28 years of teaching, coaching, and mentoring, Mr. Jasnoch will leave the exit doors one last time.
After studying at Northwestern to become a doctor, Mr. Jasnoch returned to Gurnee to become a teacher. He said, “I grew up in Gurnee. I went to Warren, graduated from Warren in 1984, so I’ve been here a long time.” He first spent eight years at Woodland before he taught at the high school level. When the Almond campus opened, Mr. Jasnoch was among a wave of new teachers hired in 1997.
When some teachers moved to the new campus, Mr. Jasnoch took a position in the history department at the O’Plaine campus.
He didn’t always know he wanted to be a teacher, but Mr. Jasnoch realized it was a passion of his. He said, “I hadn’t intended on it [teaching], but I was in college and went to be a doctor. And then I didn’t like that, so I started thinking about things that I did like, and I was very much into history and writing.” Mr. Jasnoch has taught all sorts of history classes, like World History, U.S History, Government, and Ancient and Medieval History. But government was always his favorite to teach because of its significance, explaining, “I love teaching government, especially constitutional government, because it’s just so important. It’s important to every one of us every day.”
Teaching wasn’t the only thing he did at Warren; he also brought his strengths to Warren’s Athletics, as he was a football and basketball coach. At first, he didn’t realize he wanted to be a coach along with teaching, saying, “When I first started teaching, I was just kind of excited about teaching, and then a guy who had coached me in football when I was younger needed help and he encouraged me to come and help coach football. And then also when I started at Woodland, they needed a basketball coach, so I just kind of fell into it. Coaching was a natural connection too. So teaching and coaching became something that I thought, oh yeah, I could really do.” After his wife and he started having kids, coaching two highly-involved sports was too much, and he shifted his focus towards basketball. Coach Jasnoch was at the helm of the Warren basketball team from 2015 to 2022.
Although he enjoyed sports and teaching, his favorite memories were seeing his kids grow up at the same high school he 
did, which he currently teaches at, Mr. Jasnoch said when asked about his favorite memories at Warren, “My own kids came to Warren and graduated from here, so watching them participate in their activities either playing baseball or volleyball, or softball, or being in band, color guard, and watching them do what they did was, you know my favorite, because it was my school and my kids and it was everything and one place.”
Throughout his tenure, Mr. Jasnoch appreciated the experience and lessons given by other teachers at Warren, and he looked to do the same for younger teachers. When asked about his legacy at Warren, Mr. Jasnoch replied, “I had great teachers at Warren, and I tried to live up to that as I taught. And I worked with great people, and so legacy is just like a kind of handing on or passing the torch. I learned from great teachers, I’ve worked with great teachers, and there’s going to be great teachers that keep going at Warren.”
Mr. Jasnoch has greatly impacted Warren as a whole, and he will not be forgotten. As Mr. Desecki put it perfectly, “We are going to miss his wisdom and sharp sense of humor and wish him the very best in retirement!” Happy retirement, Mr. Jasnoch!
