Rainey Briggs is new assistant principal at Sun Prairie High School
The circle of guidance
The circle of guidance
| Rainey Briggs was a participant in the Urban League of Greater Madison’s Project Jamaa back in the early 1990s. |
By Jonathan Gramling
About 20 years ago, Rainey Briggs was a middle school student looking for guidance to
make his way in a world filled with obstacles and barriers for African American men. Briggs
found that guidance in Keith Burkes who back then ran the Urban League of Greater Madison’s
Project Jamaa. Fast forward 20 years and Briggs, now a phy ed and health teacher at a middle
school in Sun Prairie, invited Burkes to come speak with his students. “I think Keith has done
a great job in helping me understand life, helping me understand kids, helping me understand
why we should do the things that we do,” Briggs said during an interview with The Capital City
Hues. “I also had the awesome opportunity of having Keith come back last year and speak to
the school. I worked as a phy ed teacher. One of other middle schools and also a couple of
our elementary schools had him speak. Just to see the kids light up when he talked was
wonderful. They had no idea who he was. It brought a tear to my eye because of how much a
difference Keith made in my life.”
While Briggs came from a good home, he needed that help in the community to find his
direction. Burkes helped him enroll at Edgewood High School. Briggs became a star student
About 20 years ago, Rainey Briggs was a middle school student looking for guidance to
make his way in a world filled with obstacles and barriers for African American men. Briggs
found that guidance in Keith Burkes who back then ran the Urban League of Greater Madison’s
Project Jamaa. Fast forward 20 years and Briggs, now a phy ed and health teacher at a middle
school in Sun Prairie, invited Burkes to come speak with his students. “I think Keith has done
a great job in helping me understand life, helping me understand kids, helping me understand
why we should do the things that we do,” Briggs said during an interview with The Capital City
Hues. “I also had the awesome opportunity of having Keith come back last year and speak to
the school. I worked as a phy ed teacher. One of other middle schools and also a couple of
our elementary schools had him speak. Just to see the kids light up when he talked was
wonderful. They had no idea who he was. It brought a tear to my eye because of how much a
difference Keith made in my life.”
While Briggs came from a good home, he needed that help in the community to find his
direction. Burkes helped him enroll at Edgewood High School. Briggs became a star student
athlete who landed a football scholarship at Mankato State University in Minneapolis. While playing free safety on the team, he hit the books and
graduated with a degree in health science, corporate and community fitness.
After college, Briggs got married and moved to Milwaukee where his wife got a teaching job at Milwaukee Academy of Science, a school with
about a 99 percent free and reduced lunch and African American student population. Briggs worked as a customer service rep for SBC and was set
on eventually opening his own fitness club one day. Then he started volunteering in his wife’s class and his career aspirations took a 180 degree
turn.
“I got to just see what it would be like to be in education” Briggs said. “I sort of bit my tongue because I should have never said I didn’t want to
go into education. That door that I went through in volunteering in my wife’s class allowed me to see where I was truly needed.”
Briggs didn’t take the usual route in obtaining his teaching credentials. His wife got a job in the Verona Area School District and a cultural
liaison position opened up that didn’t require teaching credentials Briggs applied for the position and was hired. However, the Verona school district
had overestimated the student population growth in the district it would experience in the early 2000s and so in combination with the state revenue
caps, it was forced to cut back. Briggs knew his position would be on the chopping block. As he took another position as a program coordinator for
a charter school, Briggs needed to get his teaching credentials and he needed to get them fast.
“I ended up calling DPI to ask them what I could do based on what I had already done and my college degree and they referred me to a program
called Norda, Inc,” Briggs recalled. “One of their programs is Project Teaching. It is an alternative licensing program. I called them and they asked
me to send my transcripts in to them. They reviewed my transcripts and they sent me back three different areas I could go into: biology, health and
phy ed based on the classes I had already taken. I chose phy ed and health. The only thing I had top do was take a couple of classes. So I signed up
through the University of Wisconsin-Madison to take those classes. I took teaching methods classes where you understand what kids may go
through so you understand the philosophy of teaching. That was done through Project Teaching. The program helped me get my phy ed and health
license.”
Briggs landed his first job at a Brookfield middle school as a phy ed teacher and his wife became a finalist for a superintendent’s job in
Pewaukee when his wife was offered an interview for a Sun Prairie teaching position and was offered the job the same day. As Briggs was talking
to his wife on the phone after she was offered the position, lo and behold Briggs spotted a phy ed and health teaching position opening in a Sun
Prairie middle school. As fate would have it, Briggs applied for and landed the job and the Brookfield district released him from his contract. And
now, three years later and with a Master’s degree from Viterbo University under his belt, Briggs is now ready to assume his new duties as an
assistant principal at Sun Prairie High School.
Sun Prairie High School is a fast growing school. They bring on 2-3 new students every school day. A new high school complex is currently
being built and the present high school will be turned into an 8-9 grade school. Briggs is looking forward to the challenges that the growth and the
new position will present him.
While Briggs’ position as an administrator will take him out of the day-to-day role in working with students that he has been used to, he intends
to be proactive in making sure that they students see him in roles outside of that as disciplinarian.
”In terms of being an administrator, having schedules will allow me to stay in contact with the kids,” Briggs said. “You have the authority to
make sure you don’t lose that kid piece. Are there going to be meetings? Yes! Are there going to be days where you may not see a kid? There may
be. But I think ultimately, you still have the control over making sure you get time in the classroom. I think it is important for kids to see you other
than when they are in trouble. We have 1,800 kids in this high school. Do you think every principal in the building is going to know every kid’s
name? Probably not. But my ultimate goal is to at least learn over 1,000 names and maybe show up at some of their activities, whether it is football
games, basketball games, band concerts or orchestra concerts. I want it to be known that I want to be a part of their lives and not just a source of
negativity. I want them to see what I do and how important it is for me to see them and the things that they do.”
And in that role, Briggs will be completing a circle of guidance begun 20 years ago. “A lot of kids like to decide for themselves what they want
to do,” Briggs said. “But being there as a positive guide and role model sometimes makes a difference. Not once do I look back and say ‘Keith said
to me ‘You should go and be an educator.’ He didn’t. Keith was there as a positive role model for me, someone who gave me some great insight into
many things about life. I look back every day — and my wife can tell you — it’s amazing how one person can make a difference in a thousand
people’s lives. It’s all about how you go about making that difference.”
The baton of guidance has been passed from one generation to the next.
graduated with a degree in health science, corporate and community fitness.
After college, Briggs got married and moved to Milwaukee where his wife got a teaching job at Milwaukee Academy of Science, a school with
about a 99 percent free and reduced lunch and African American student population. Briggs worked as a customer service rep for SBC and was set
on eventually opening his own fitness club one day. Then he started volunteering in his wife’s class and his career aspirations took a 180 degree
turn.
“I got to just see what it would be like to be in education” Briggs said. “I sort of bit my tongue because I should have never said I didn’t want to
go into education. That door that I went through in volunteering in my wife’s class allowed me to see where I was truly needed.”
Briggs didn’t take the usual route in obtaining his teaching credentials. His wife got a job in the Verona Area School District and a cultural
liaison position opened up that didn’t require teaching credentials Briggs applied for the position and was hired. However, the Verona school district
had overestimated the student population growth in the district it would experience in the early 2000s and so in combination with the state revenue
caps, it was forced to cut back. Briggs knew his position would be on the chopping block. As he took another position as a program coordinator for
a charter school, Briggs needed to get his teaching credentials and he needed to get them fast.
“I ended up calling DPI to ask them what I could do based on what I had already done and my college degree and they referred me to a program
called Norda, Inc,” Briggs recalled. “One of their programs is Project Teaching. It is an alternative licensing program. I called them and they asked
me to send my transcripts in to them. They reviewed my transcripts and they sent me back three different areas I could go into: biology, health and
phy ed based on the classes I had already taken. I chose phy ed and health. The only thing I had top do was take a couple of classes. So I signed up
through the University of Wisconsin-Madison to take those classes. I took teaching methods classes where you understand what kids may go
through so you understand the philosophy of teaching. That was done through Project Teaching. The program helped me get my phy ed and health
license.”
Briggs landed his first job at a Brookfield middle school as a phy ed teacher and his wife became a finalist for a superintendent’s job in
Pewaukee when his wife was offered an interview for a Sun Prairie teaching position and was offered the job the same day. As Briggs was talking
to his wife on the phone after she was offered the position, lo and behold Briggs spotted a phy ed and health teaching position opening in a Sun
Prairie middle school. As fate would have it, Briggs applied for and landed the job and the Brookfield district released him from his contract. And
now, three years later and with a Master’s degree from Viterbo University under his belt, Briggs is now ready to assume his new duties as an
assistant principal at Sun Prairie High School.
Sun Prairie High School is a fast growing school. They bring on 2-3 new students every school day. A new high school complex is currently
being built and the present high school will be turned into an 8-9 grade school. Briggs is looking forward to the challenges that the growth and the
new position will present him.
While Briggs’ position as an administrator will take him out of the day-to-day role in working with students that he has been used to, he intends
to be proactive in making sure that they students see him in roles outside of that as disciplinarian.
”In terms of being an administrator, having schedules will allow me to stay in contact with the kids,” Briggs said. “You have the authority to
make sure you don’t lose that kid piece. Are there going to be meetings? Yes! Are there going to be days where you may not see a kid? There may
be. But I think ultimately, you still have the control over making sure you get time in the classroom. I think it is important for kids to see you other
than when they are in trouble. We have 1,800 kids in this high school. Do you think every principal in the building is going to know every kid’s
name? Probably not. But my ultimate goal is to at least learn over 1,000 names and maybe show up at some of their activities, whether it is football
games, basketball games, band concerts or orchestra concerts. I want it to be known that I want to be a part of their lives and not just a source of
negativity. I want them to see what I do and how important it is for me to see them and the things that they do.”
And in that role, Briggs will be completing a circle of guidance begun 20 years ago. “A lot of kids like to decide for themselves what they want
to do,” Briggs said. “But being there as a positive guide and role model sometimes makes a difference. Not once do I look back and say ‘Keith said
to me ‘You should go and be an educator.’ He didn’t. Keith was there as a positive role model for me, someone who gave me some great insight into
many things about life. I look back every day — and my wife can tell you — it’s amazing how one person can make a difference in a thousand
people’s lives. It’s all about how you go about making that difference.”
The baton of guidance has been passed from one generation to the next.
