February 26, 2014 at 1:53 p.m.
Teachers and students reminisce as Central Intermediate celebrates 75 years
Teachers and students reminisce as Central Intermediate celebrates 75 years
By Kayla Thomason-
When Mike Wiernasz, a retired fifth-grade teacher (1985-2009), started working at Central Intermediate it was a neighborhood school for the east side of Rhinelander serving students in kindergarten through fifth grade. In 1989-90, construction of the new gym and classrooms nearly doubled the classroom size.
"The room in the lower level, that's the library, was the auditorium/gymnasium when I started teaching there and there was no room to play any large-group game with any larger group of kids than maybe 20," Wiernasz said.
Tom Doyle taught fourth grade in the basement of the school until the newwing was finished. He stayed at the school until 2005 and has many stories about teaching there.
The makeshift rooms in the basement had thin walls and everyone could hear the other classes, he said.
"I know Kelly Johnson, now Kelly Meyer, was teaching alongside of me and we could hear each other through the wall and I remember when sometimes we'd be doing the spelling test at the same time on Friday and when that happened a couple of times my fourth graders would write the words down from the [first or second] grade class too alongside, so sometimes I would get a list of two words when they were turned in," Doyle said.
Kelly Meyer taught first and second grade at Central for approximately 14 years until the restructuring of local schools caused her to move to a different school.
Doyle speculated that the school switched from a kindergarten through fifth-grade school to only fourth and fifth for economic reasons. Some schools in surrounding areas were shutting down due to financial concerns and segmenting the schools allowed for a more equal distribution of students and attention to the particular grades, he said.
Central Intermediate now has six fourth-grade classes and six fifth-grade classes.
Jeff Welk's class was the last sixth-grade class to go to Central Intermediate.
He is now a teacher and has been based at Central for eight years, teaching in one of the classrooms where he learned his own lessons.
"Things have changed over the years but it's a great school," he said. "I liked it plus it was so close to my home too, because I lived a block away at the time."
Welk said he enjoys working at the school he once attended where some of his teachers have become his collogues.
"As being someone that was born and raised here, go to school here, then come back and you're actually teaching at the school you were at is pretty neat," Welk said.
Tim Howell has been Central Intermediate's principal for 17 years. During that time he has overseen the remodeling of the office and has seen an increase in programs for the children, including the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) program which focuses on the emotional and social growth of children and teaches them about appropriate behavior.
On the academic side, the Response to Intervention (RTI) program provides a monitoring system so that the children get the most appropriate education at their level of learning.
When Doyle taught he enjoyed outdoor classes, planting trees around the school at Arbor Day, the field trips, and the plays his class would put on for the other grades. Sometimes Doyle's wife, Pat, who was a music teacher at Central, would play music to accompany them.
"Sometimes we did a play where she put music to it and I had different casts, like I had three casts for the same little play and she would have her classes down in music and I would send one group of kids down and they would do the play for her music class and then they would come back to my room and then when she had another class I would send another cast down and they would do that little play for the kids. Things like that I remember," Doyle said. "When we'd put on plays in the room we could invite younger kids and they liked to do that."
Doyle also reminisced about basketball, which he coached, and watching the teams play against other schools.
All of the teachers interviewed spoke warmly about their days at Central and their hopes for its future.
"Central School was a very good place to work and I think all of the kids that went to school there in the past are there now and in the future are going to get nothing but the best education that Rhinelander can give at the elementary level and I don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue," Wiernasz said.
"It was great [working at Central]. We had a wonderful group of teachers that worked there and we all kind of pulled together and I really enjoyed working there when I did," Meyer added.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.