Photo by: Matt Klarner submission

Mr. Klarner helping out students at Neenah High School.

The year is 2005 and Matt Klarner decides to make a major shift in his career by jumping ship from software development at American Medical Security to school teacher after finding that he enjoys working with kids much more than adults.  

This leads Mr.Klarner back to school for one year to earn a teaching certification, allowing him to work at St. John Middle School for nine years realizing that teaching speaks to him.  

While Klarner has his first child in 2014, he comes across Neenah High School in August of the same year and accepts the offer for an interview to teach there, seeing as there are greater benefits there while his wife works part-time to take care of the child.  

Klarner finds a job here the equivalent of finding a diamond in the rough, which he views as an understatement. 

“I had a great rapport with Mr.Wunderlich and Mr.Frost in the interview. I can tell they were really in it for the kids, and that this is a very student-driven place.” 

Klarner is ecstatic when Wunderlich offers him a position as a Computer Science teacher because of his former background on the subject and his dedication to working with kids and supporting their education. 

Klarner teaches Computer Science that year, educating students about the world of coding in a way that interested many more students than usual, and later on gets to teach even more classes like Raspberry Pi, game design, and even cybersecurity because of his knowledge and success with the students. 

Neenah High School, while on the struggle bus to offer course variety in the technology department, realizes it takes just one right person to make a positive difference in a school district.

In this case, Klarner is that one person who made a positive difference in the school district.