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For Buonviri, math was the path
Teacher retiring from Great Mills after 40 years
Friday, June 5, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photso by REID SILVERMAN
Michael Buonviri, a Great Mills High School math teacher, admires a gift that is now displayed in the school's math hallway. Buonviri has taught at Great Mills for 40 years and will be retiring this month.
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Michael Buonviri has passed a lot of road signs in the last 40 years on his way to and from Great Mills High School, whether in his car or on his bicycle.
That will all change after next week; Buonviri is retiring after 40 years of teaching mathematics there.
Now, to remind others at the school of the veteran teacher's presence, a road sign now hangs in the upstairs math hall at Great Mills that reads "Buonviri Blvd." The avid bicyclist said this week that he will miss the school, but is looking forward to more time with his grandchildren and spending time outdoors.
Buonviri, 62, arrived in St. Mary's County in 1969 fresh out of the University of Maryland. "I was surprised to hear that St. Mary's County had just been integrated," Buonviri said.
He quickly grew to love the school of about 800 students – fewer than half of its current enrollment. Over the years he got to know not just the school, but the community of Great Mills, especially when sons and daughters (and more recently, grandchildren) of former students began showing up in his classes.
"The year I took Mr. Buonviri's Algebra II class marked the beginning of my love for mathematics," Tracey Heibel said. The current Great Mills principal graduated from the school in 1981.
"He was an inspiring teacher and an enduring role model for me in my career as a math teacher in the years and decades that followed," she said.
Now working as his principal, Heibel complimented him on his "caring, patient, diligent way that he went about his teaching every single day."
While he said he has never been a formal teaching mentor to a new teacher, he has helped out many newbies over the years with words of wisdom and advice.
"A lot of times you don't even realize you're mentoring. You just make comments, or suggestions," and hear from a teacher later how much that advice helped, he said.
"I've taught just about everything," from remedial math to advanced calculus courses, he said.
He said he has enjoyed seeing the school evolve over the last four decades. "It's been very interesting to watch," he said.
St. Mary's school board member Sal Raspa was a chemistry teacher and later principal at Great Mills during Buonviri's tenure. "He was very dedicated, one of the most dedicated math teachers I've come across in my life time," Raspa said. Raspa said that the math teacher had a knack for sticking with struggling students until they could grasp a math concept.
"You have a sense of satisfaction as an educator," after working for so long and helping so many students, Raspa said.
Buonviri this year received an MIT Inspirational Teacher Award for inspiring in his students a love of learning. "Every kid, there's something to look forward to. There is good in even the most challenging kids," the teacher said. "More than anything else, if their confidence can be found, you've made a difference."
This year's graduating class paid tribute to the veteran teacher at commencement last week. "My most inspiring teacher ever was Mr. Buonviri, who cultivated my love for math while teaching me calculus and a few valuable life lessons along the way," said this year's Great Mills valedictorian, Michael Branigan.
"Mr. Buonviri is an influential teacher who has taught not just our parents but also our grandparents," said Melanie Boekel, salutatorian of the class of 2009. "We thought he'd be teaching math to our kids 50 years from now. I appreciate his service to the school. We are going to miss you."
Zora Siemasko taught with Buonviri for several years before becoming principal at Great Mills from 1985 to 1991. "He was an excellent teacher and had a very fond rapport with all the kids," she said. "The child who had difficulty learning was as important to him as his top calculus student." Siemasko said that Buonviri was great at teaching in part because "he really enjoyed it."
After spending some time with his five grandchildren and vacationing, he said he might look to tutor students or even teach at the College of Southern Maryland. He is also looking forward to spending more time outdoors, including a passion of his — bicycling.
"I will eventually come back to being a teacher in some form or some venue," he said.
