HEMET HIGH ALUMS WOULD LOVE OLD GLOBE REUNION TRIP
Keith Rossi, the sort-of retired Hemet High School English teacher, was paid quite the compliment on Facebook.Lots of Hemet High alums said they were willing to go back to school for a day to take a reunion field trip to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego’s Balboa Park.“You might need to have one per graduation decade,” wrote Heather Nelson in one of the many responses. “The Old Globe would be overwhelmed with 25 years of AP students. Count me in!”Rossi, who retired in 2012, remains passionate about teaching, especially advanced placement collegelevel classes. He is staying quite busy with educationrelated part-time work, including teaching two AP English classes at San Jacinto High. He recently took a group of San Jacinto High students to the Old Globe, bringing a long-held Hemet High tradition to the rival school.His cultural field trips, organized in cahoots with revered and also-retired Hemet High teacher Rich Herold, were popular at the school for a quarter century. When Rossi retired, he oriented Hemet High English teacher Elizabeth Fiorito to the cultural project. She continues the tradition by taking AP English students to the San Diego park.Rossi was bombarded with requests for a Hemet High reunion trip after taking the San Jacinto students to the Globe. Wouldn’t it be great if it actually happened? At the very least, the response should make Rossi and Herold feel they had a cultural influence on a lot of students.“Not sure if it would go or if we could get it off the ground, but I can think of a few hundred who would love to do it,especially for the opportunity to chat with one of the best teachers alive, Rich Herold,” Rossi wrote. “I will keep you posted.”
Contact Bob Pratte at [email protected] or 3400 Wentworth Drive, Hemet 92545. Find Bob’s blog at blog.pe.com/author/bobpratte and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PE.BobPratte and Twitter: @bpratte
DIANE A. RHODES/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHEREnglish teacher Keith Rossi acts in a scene from “Twelfth Night.”