Honored teacher moves to Crook County

For the first time in nearly two decades, Sisters High School started the school year without social studies and technology teacher Jon Renner.

Renner, who was honored with a "Best in Sisters" award at the last school board meeting, isn't in Sisters anymore. He has moved to Crook County where he will pursue a philosophy of teaching he found inhibited in Sisters.

"I'm really interested in cross-curricular cooperation between different departments and integrated teaching of different subjects," Renner explained. "That isn't really the direction that Elaine (Drakulich, schools superintendent) wanted to go, so I took the opportunity to do something I've been trying to do for a long time."

Renner believes education should integrate subjects such as math and science with teaching about the social impacts of technological development. His "Society" classes brought technology into the classroom through multimedia presentations, but Renner wants to do that sort of work on a larger scale.

He recalled that he salvaged a wind tunnel and a computer from the technology center developed at the old high school. Those tools were to be scrapped during the move to the new Sisters High School. Renner hoped to create a class that would use the wind tunnel as a physics demonstration of how a car could get better gas mileage and - the social studies component - impact the level of dependence on oil.

To be successful, modeling technology needed to be acquired for the class.

"I was unable to do that, in spite of the fact that I had been working pretty hard for a while to do that," Renner said.

Renner said that many top Oregon schools are "integrating math, science and engineering and the social issues that go with it. Sisters isn't, and that's too bad."

Drakulich disagrees with that perspective.

"I am and we are interested in cross-curricular cooperation," she told The Nugget. "Tony Cosby and Craig Ray have been working on an Engineering program that integrates different departments... Janice Comfort is taking classes in integrating math into Culinary arts. Language Arts and Social Studies classes often integrate their subject areas across the district."

It is uncertain whether Renner will be able to undertake any large-scale projects in Crook County; the school district faces a $1.4 million shortfall this year.

In any case, Renner is engaged in new work, teaching Law, Criminal Justice, Economics and U.S. History. He spent the last weeks of the summer break refitting his classroom to allow his signature style of multimedia presentation. He has created an Internet capability for his students to work on assignments remotely.

There are adjustments for his students.

"My teaching style is pretty different from what the kids there have been used to," Renner said. "I use multimedia extensively and I use the Socratic style of lecture, which requires the kids to participate instead of taking notes."

Renner's style, which persistently questions beliefs and the basis for those beliefs, made him enormously popular among many students and parents in Sisters (see Letters to the Editor, page 2). It also made him a controversial figure to some who were not comfortable with what they felt were attacks on their beliefs.

Principal Bob Macauley, who has worked with Renner for over a decade, regrets his departure.

"It stings," he said. "It's hard to lose an educator of his stature as a human being first of all." He noted that Renner was always available as a technology troubleshooter and always had a kind word for a colleague who was down.

"He might be controversial to some people, but he is the finest educator I have ever been around," Macauley said.

Renner was also responsible for founding the student-based Internet business OutlawNet in 1996. The company grew out of a need to provide faster, more reliable Internet access for students than was available in Sisters in 1996.

"I developed a business plan in which a new company could provide the entire school district with free Internet access and network services if the district would agree to lease the business an onsite office space at commercial rates," Renner wrote in a hstory of the company. "A campus office was important because I wanted the students directly involved in building and operating the business."

OutlawNet grew into a thriving Internet business and was later purchased by Community Broadband. (For more information visit http://www.outlawnet.com).

OutlawNet "certainly made a huge contribution to the district," Renner told The Nugget. "It's trained hundreds of students in technical matters."

Many of those students have gone on into high-tech careers.

Renner noted that his Society class "is kind of a groundbreaking class, too" in the combination of current events, historical sociology and the use of technology.

Renner acknowledged that his last-minute departure from Sisters was difficult.

"I leave behind a lot of friends and good teachers, too," he said. "I wish that I'd been able to plan this with more lead time so as to not make a mess of things there, but I wasn't able to do that."

Three different teachers are covering Renner's classes: Garrett Gladden is teaching his academic classes; Ben Young has taken on Video Production and Technology classes; and Peter Dempsey is teaching Digital Photography.

"You can't replace Jon Renner," Macauley said. "Let alone replace Jon Renner in August."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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