Name: “My name is trouble, T-R-O-U-B-L-E, my last name is Regnier, R-E-G-N-I-E-R, sometimes I go by the alias Dave Regnier.”
Teaches: “Algebra 2/trig and [AP] Calculus A/B.”
Experience: “I was teaching for 33 years at Monta Vista […] until ’02 when I retired. [I taught] whatever they told me to, and that was the way it was. So I went from 1 and 1 is 2, through calculus.”
Reason for coming back: “[Mr. Anderson] gave me a call and I do sub on and off periodically. I generally pick my times and my places and Monta Vista’s like old home so yeah, I go to Monta Vista when they call. There’s other schools in the district that are super. Why here? Because I love the kids and I love the school and I love everything about it, so it’s as simple as that.”
What’s it like to be back?: “I described it to my wife when I got here. It was like a jockey standing on the side of the home stretch. And they’re watching a race and some rider falls off his racehorse and the racehorse is galloping down the track and then somebody says, ‘Get on the horse and finish the race for him.’ And so you just jump on the horse but the horse is running, you can’t really get on so you get dragged for a while. And so I was bumping along and dragging along on that turf and it was about the last week or so [that] I felt like ‘I’m on the horse.’ Now that’s kind of where it is.”
How are the students?: “Same as they always were, great. This school has always been amazing, and so the kids have always been amazing. You know I want to write notes to each of the kids and say ‘You are amazing, you are amazing.’ But I can’t do that […] the parents would probably think I’m some kind of creep.”
How does it feel to be leaving again?: “I suspect [Mr. Anderson] will be back, I suspect he’ll start second semester. I’m going to plan on him not, because if I get tapped I’ve got to be ready and so I’ve already been looking at the next chapter. And it’ll be very different because when you start the new semester you’re starting over. When you’re buttoning up the last semester you got to bring it all. That would be much easier, to start a new semester. I feel like I gave it my best. I’m not going to miss it, I mean I did it forever and I got to come back and revisit it, that’s cool. [But I’ll] miss the kids, you always miss the kids, that’s part of the job.”
