Educators score high marks

As the person who presented the Excellence in Education honors to local educators during the Newton Chamber of Commerce’s 121st Annual Dinner, Amy Doerring said the experience was almost like a “teachers’ Academy Awards.”

As long as dapper tuxedoes and extravagant dresses are substituted for business casual attire, Doerring’s comparison is not too far from the truth.

During the Jan. 24 dinner and Chamber gathering at Legacy Plaza, one teacher from each of the seven Newton Community School District campuses walked away with more than just an Excellence in Education Award and $250 to use for his or her class — they left with a strong sense of accomplishment, rewarded for thinking differently, for standing out and for choosing “to do things beyond the basics” in their classrooms.

“Their plates are full in all the roles they play in these children’s lives,” Doerring told the Newton Daily News Tuesday. “It’s such an honor to say, ‘You are important to us, to our children, to our town, to our community,’ in front of everybody.”

Presented by the Newton Community Educational Foundation (NCEF), Doerring said the accolades were a way to identify and thank teachers for “teaching, counseling, hugging, loving, crying (with), laughing (with), feeding, refereeing and cheerleading” their students.

Teachers who received an Excellence in Education Award this year include:

• Taylor Marsho, a kindergarten teacher from Aurora Heights Elementary

• Sara Shockey, a kindergarten teacher from Emerson Hough Elementary

• Melissa Bennett, a second-grade teacher from Thomas Jefferson Elementary

• Heidi Holley, a first-grade teacher from Woodrow Wilson Elementary

• Gary Larsson, a social studies teacher from Berg Middle School

• Tracy Swanson, a math teacher from WEST Academy

• Doree Ward, a behavioral science and driver’s education teacher at Newton High School.

During the NCSD Board of Education meeting Monday night, Superintendent Bob Callaghan recognized the winnners of the NCEF Excellence in Education Awards. He said the amount of nominees the district receives this year was “probably quadruple” what it normally received.

A board member of NCEF and chair of the Excellence and Education Committee, Doerring said the awards have been given out for several years in the community. Typically, teachers are nominated by parents, students or their co-workers in the fall for selection of the award.

At the Chamber of Commerce dinner, Doerring read aloud the names of each winner to a full-house of city leaders and business owners and provided background information, testimonials from students and the best part about each teacher’s school day. Amanda Price, executive director of the Newton Chamber of Commerce, said the premiere annual dinner provides the NCEF with a way to promote community teachers in front of the appropriate people and stakeholders.

“I think all of us sort of take teachers for granted, whether we mean to or not, and I think (the Excellence in Education Awards ceremony) is a way to sort of bring us all back down to earth again and make us realize our teachers really are so important to our community and the whole world,” Price said. “They’re kind of where everything starts.”

Doerring said it’s important to acknowledge educators in this fashion.

“They’re raising our future leaders,” she said of the NCSD educators and staff, “and we honor them every day.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com