FORMER TEACHER OF THE YEAR RETIRES FROM CAPE SCHOOLS

Former Missouri Teacher of the Year Carol Reimann won't teach reading, writing or arithmetic when she assumes new job duties at Southeast Missouri State University next month.

Instead, Reimann, who has taught first grade for the past 33 years at Clippard and May Greene schools, will serve as a teacher for teachers in her new role as assistant director of the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center.

The center, which serves a 17-county region, provides a variety of staff development programs to area schools.

The Cape Girardeau school board accepted Reimann's retirement during a meeting Tuesday. Schools superintendent Dan Steska said he expects Reimann to shine brighter than her trademark sparkly clothing and jewelry in her new role.

Sharing expertise

"We are disappointed to see her leaving, but there's no doubt in anyone's mind she'll be great," said Steska said. "It's bad for our district, but it's good for all of the schools in the region because she'll be sharing her expertise with everyone."

Reimann is out of town this week and was unavailable for comment Tuesday. She has stockpiled numerous professional honors during her career, including the top honor in 1997-98 as the Missouri Teacher of the Year.

She recently completed a one-year leave of absence from Clippard while she served as a teacher trainer in the Select Teachers As Regional Resources, or STARR, program.

STARR provides professional classroom-tested training to teach teachers how to help students meet the state's academic performance standards. The program was created in 1994.

STARR teachers receive one year of training before taking a leave of absence from their job to travel to other schools in their region sharing recently learned techniques.

Dr. Robert Bell, director of the STARR program, said about 78.5 percent of all teachers return to their home districts for at least one year following their leave of absence.

About 3 percent of STARR teachers return to their home district as administrators, 5.5 percent move to new districts, and another 7.4 percent fall into a miscellaneous category.

About 5.5 percent, like Reimann, accept positions at one of the nine regional professional development centers in the state.

"Carol's a very outstanding educator and made an excellent STARR teacher," Bell said. "It's going to be a plus for that office. If they go to the RPDC, that's a position where they're able to share their expertise."