Popular Wilson High Teacher Forced Out
A DCUM Poster calls Reiner one of Wilson's "all-time brightest lights" who "inspired the hearts and illuminated the minds of Washington, D.C.'s children".
This morning Harry Jaffe reported in the Washington Examiner that Joe Riener has been forced out as a teacher at Washington, DC's Wilson Senior High. Jaffe attributes this to flaws in DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee's IMPACT evaluation system. An anonymous DCUM Forums participant lamented the move in a very eloquent post. With permission of the author, that post is being republished here.
Oh no, this can't be!?!?
Mr. Riener is an outstanding teacher and his commitment to Wilson High School is unsurpassed.
During these past fifteen years, Mr. Riener has taught hundreds, perhaps thousands of students college level/quality writing skills. The vast majority of students who have graduated from Wilson during these years with the skills required to be successful in college have been taught by Mr. Riener. On an academic level the loss of Mr. Riener is a great tragedy for Wilson.
Wilson never had a more committed teacher than Mr. Riener. He sponsored the school newspaper, he was involved with school plays and he was instrumental in hiring Ms. Bronstein who is masterful at the art of theater production. Mr. Riener remained involved in every aspect of Wilson’s theater productions. He also worked tirelessly as a carpenter building sets for school plays. The Wilson Players remain as one of the greatest assets in the Wilson Community.
The school has been falling apart for decades and there was no decent location in the entire building to administer A.P. Exams. For years A.P. Exams were administered in the Library with students sitting at round tables facing each other. Clearly, this was not ideal for the integrity of the testing process. To remedy this problem the administration decided to move the testing location to the auditorium.
This solved the integrity problem and allowed for more space to accommodate the growing number of students taking A.P. Exams at Wilson. However, it also presented a different problem, which was how would the students spread the tests and their scrap paper across their laps in auditorium seats to take the exams and to score well?
Well, Mr. Riener came to the rescue. Mr. Riener measured, designed, and built strong, sturdy, smoothly sanded, durable wooden desk tops that comfortably fit across the arm rests of the auditorium seats. With the help of parents and students, Mr. Riener built enough of these desk tops to accommodate every student taking any one of the roughly twenty-two A.P. Exams administered at Wilson every year. Some English and History Exams are taken by more than a hundred students at the same time. So, one can only assume that Mr. Riener and his crew of helpers must have built at least that number of desk tops.
The school is going through extensive renovations at present and it will not be occupied during the 2010-2011 school year. When the students and staff return to a renovated Wilson High School in the Fall of 2011, presumably they will have created facilities that can more effectively be used for large scale testing than the auditorium has been in the past. That being the case they probably won't have any more use for those desk tops.
It's kind of sad in a way. In a time of real need when there was no other alternative, those desk tops served Woodrow Wilson High School very well and now they will just be tossed out to the trash bin.
Those discarded desk tops are kind of like Mr. Riener himself. Fifteen years ago when DCPS desperately needed quality teachers, he stepped up and served the school and its students in every way possible and now he too is being discarded to the trash bin.
The newly renovated Wilson High will be shinny and clean. They even say it will have bright and sunny atrium. Unfortunately, it will not have one of its all-time brightest lights. Today, Wilson lost an individual who has for so many years inspired the hearts and illuminated the minds of Washington, D.C.'s children.
go tigers???
-- Anonymous