The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

Teachers Who Went Here: Mr. Burgess

If you haven’t stayed after school until 4:30 doing physics test corrections with Mr. Burgess, consider yourself a minority among the students of VHS. Perhaps this is because tests were what helped Jon Eric Burgess, a VHS 1995 graduate, maintain his A, B average.

“I was a nerd,” Mr. Burgess freely admits. He always studied, but “never did all of (his) homework.” He says he would try to get away with doing work he should have done for homework while he was in class.

Mr. Burgess wanted to enter into math and sciences as a student, but he did not know exactly what area. Physics, chemistry, math, and computer science all caught his attention. After graduation, Mr. Burgess found that Mr. Treitler’s Calculus class helped him the most. In college he was able to place out of Calculus I and already knew the material in Calculus II because of Mr. Treitler’s teaching. Additionally, calculus helped him do the math needed for physics. Mr. Burgess believes this class has helped him the most in his career. But, Mr. Treitler isn’t the only teacher he had that still works at VHS. He also had Mrs. Prendergast and Mrs. Young.

“I enjoy the teachers I once had being my colleagues now.” This is Mr. Burgess’s fifth year of teaching which means that he has officially taught at VHS longer than he attended it for. This is proof that his relationships with those teachers have changed over the years because he says, “Although students think teachers may be strict now, teachers were stricter back when I was at VHS. Kids get away with more now.”

Mr. Burgess’s favorite high school memory was a spring break of his sophomore year. In the past, over spring break the language departments would go on international trips. Spanish classes traveled to Spain and French classes went to France. The English department decided to join and go to England that year.  Mr. Burgess was one of the only students to take this a trip because it was a one time occurrence! Mr. White and two other teachers chaperoned this literary tour. The group watched three plays and saw William Shakespeare’s house.

However, being a high school student years ago wasn’t too different than now. Mr. Burgess, playing the tuba, competed in band competitions. On the weekends, he would sleep a lot and hang out with his friends. He remembers hanging out at the Pilgrim Diner often, like many kids still do. Musically he was a fan of R.E.M and Nirvana, and rock and classical music in general.

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