Hyattsville teacher wins county honors

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Hyattsville teacher wins county honors

by Dennis Carter | Staff Writer

E-mail this article \ Print this article

Brenda Ahearn⁄The Gazette

Leah Rempert, a reading recovery teacher at Hyattsville’s Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School, learns she has been named Prince George’s County Teacher of the Year at a reception held at the Newton White Mansion in Mitchellville Tuesday.

Leah Rempert appeared stunned when her name was announced as this year’s county ‘‘Teacher of the Year,” despite considerable recognition she’s received as one of the best in Prince George’s County.

With her eyes welling up, Rempert embraced schools Superintendent John Deasy at the 21st annual Prince George’s County Teacher of the Year Award in Mitchellville Tuesday.

‘‘It was a very astute group of teachers up there,” she said, referring to the two other finalists up for the award. ‘‘It makes you wonder, ‘What are you doing up here?’ ... The whole process has been humbling and a little scary.”

Rempert, a 38-year veteran of the school system, is a reading specialist and reading recovery teacher at Hyattsville’s Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School. She comes from a household of Prince George’s educators: Her husband, Harold Rempert, is a longtime reading recovery specialist at Adelphi Elementary and Carole Highlands Elementary School in Takoma Park.

‘‘This is the result of long hours and long days of hard work,” Harold Rempert said as his wife held an impromptu press conference.

The Hyattsville school nominated Rempert for her instructional prowess and growing leadership role among the school’s faculty and staff. Her efforts to bolster the instructional programs in the language arts at Langley Park-McCormick Elementary also caught the administration’s attention.

Langley Park Principal Sandra Jimenez credited Rempert’s leadership skills for helping raise the school’s status in the county. Once the lowest scoring school in the school system’s Region 5, Langley Park has met Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) two out of the last three years. AYP consists of state-defined academic improvement goals that schools must meet to obtain funding through the No Child Left Behind Act.

‘‘Much of this improvement can be attributed to Leah Rempert’s leadership in improving quality of instruction in reading,” Jimenez said.

As the county’s teacher of the year, Rempert will be in charge of pushing local and state decision-makers for academic change and representing Prince George’s schools throughout the state.

Jimenez said she would miss her star teacher when her new responsibilities pulled her away from the classroom over the next year.

‘‘I’m so addicted to having her around, it’ll be hard to live without her,” Jimenez said with a laugh.

Rempert, who heads an online class for the Maryland State Department of Education, oversees staff development sessions, provides parent training in language arts and mentors incoming teachers at Langley Park. She also works with the early childhood language programs and serves as coordinator for the school’s Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program, which consists of 140 students.

Rempert will represent Prince George’s County at the annual Maryland Teacher of the Year ceremony in the fall.

Nominees for the Prince George’s Teacher of the Year included Joy Singleton Jackson at Ernest Everett Just Middle School in Mitchellville, Bernadette Sharp Melvin at Carmody Hills Elementary School in Capitol Heights, Jennifer Gerber at Riverdale Elementary, Karen Ferguson at Deerfield Run Elementary School in Laurel, Joyce Erb-Appleman at Berwyn Heights Elementary School and Jennifer Dean at Mitchellville’s Lake Arbor Elementary School.

Erb-Appleman and Sharp Melvin joined Rempert as the top finalists.