Polk County Public Schools
Ruth Teets, a reading teacher at Mulberry’s Purcell Elementary and Cindy Wickham, a foodservice manager at Lakeland’s Dixieland Elementary took top honors this evening at the Polk County Public Schools 2009 Teacher Of The Year and School-Related Employee Of The Year event held at The Lakeland Center.
Teets was named 2009 Teacher Of The Year and Wickham was named 2009 School-Related Employee Of The Year before more than 1,000 teachers, staff members, community members, event sponsors and guests. The School-Related award is for paraeducators, secretaries, maintenance, foodservice, transportation and others in support roles.
Teachers and school-related employees were nominated by their individual schools. Teets and Wickham, along with award finalists announced this evening, received cash awards and other prizes from event sponsors. In addition, MidFlorida Federal Credit Union, the event’s premiere sponsor, presented a 2009 Chevy Malibu to Teets.
Judges were representatives from local businesses and organizations and included former Teachers Of The Year and School-Related Employees Of The Year. They reviewed more than 300 nominee applications and did not know nominees’ identities or school where they work. Teacher and School-Related nominees completed an application with categories that included leadership and professional development activities, community and school involvement and teaching style.
Teets and Wickham will move on to compete for state Teacher Of The Year and state School-Related Employee Of The Year honors. Polk teachers have an outstanding streak going in the state Teacher of the Year event. Polk has had state finalists in three of the last five years--2004, 2005 and 2008--and five of the last 11 years –1998, 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Polk had state Teachers Of The Year in 2005 (Samuel Bennett, Garner Elementary-Winter Haven) and 1981 (Beth Johnson, Kathleen High-Lakeland).
The Polk County Public Schools are the largest employer in Polk County with more than 13,000 employees. Nearly 7,300 are employed as teachers.
Ruth Teets profile:
Ruth has 22 years experience. She is considered a key member in her school improving the reading scores of its lowest performing students by 22 percentage points in one year. She effectively dives into data to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses to form an action plan for improvement. For three consecutive years, Ruth has led presentations at the Just Read! Florida Leadership Conference for teachers, administrators and officials. She has special expertise with parent and family involvement. She organized parent workshops titled “Donuts for Dad and Muffins for Mom” that created an engaging atmosphere where parents learned how to assist their children with reading. Through her relentless parent contact and recruiting, she has held parent workshops with more than 500 in attendance.
Cindy Wickham profile:
Cindy has 12 years experience. She is a highly decorated foodservice manager. She has won statewide quality awards for her dining room on four different occasions. Presentation of her school’s dining room and its meals are impeccable. Customer service is her daily agenda. She know students by name, what flavor of milk they prefer and their favorite fruit. She adds to the math curriculum by leading lessons on nutritional servings. Students learn about fractions and percentages based on servings. Students love the interaction making math come alive when she hosts these lessons in the dining room. Cindy will also visit classrooms and present lessons on the food pyramid. Cindy designates one week each month in her dining room as “Lunch And A Book” as students are encouraged to read a book with lunch.
Eight finalists for each award were announced during the evening prior to naming the winners.
Teets was named Teacher Of The Year from among the following finalist group:
Audrey Gelin, Boone Middle (Haines City)
Keli Keyes, Highland City Elementary
Barbara Langford, Alta Vista Elementary (Haines City)
Nicole Maassen, Bartow Middle
Wanda Miles, Garden Grove Elementary (Winter Haven)
Saralyn Smith, Kingsford Elementary (Mulberry)
Joan Turner, Westwood Middle (Winter Haven)
Wickham was named School-Related Employee Of The Year from among the following finalist group:
JoAnn Cassidy, Daniel Jenkins Academy of Technology (Haines City)
Sherry Gary, Lake Alfred Elementary
Layne Mayo, Kingsford Elementary (Mulberry)
Sunnie Parkins, Polk City Elementary
Jackie Prevatt, Bartow High/Bartow International Baccalaureate/Summerlin Academy
Claudia Sandoval del Valle, Purcell Elementary (Mulberry)
Angel Torres, East Area Adult School (Auburndale)
