Three teachers to be awarded at excellence program
Three winners will be chosen and announced Friday at the 20th El Dorado Education Foundation (EDEF) Teacher Excellence Awards program.
John Moore, senior vice president and general council for Murphy USA will be the keynote speaker at the event, which will be held at 3 p.m. Friday in the El Dorado High School performing arts center.
According to a press release, the EDEF Teacher Excellence Awards project was started to recognize excellence in public school teaching in three levels – elementary, middle/junior high, and high school. Each year, it accepts nominees for outstanding educators from parents, grandparents, guardians, students, former students, the public and El Dorado Public Schools teachers and employees. For 2018, nearly 500 nominations were received.
The three different awards include: outstanding elementary teacher, outstanding middle/junior high school teacher and outstanding high school teacher.
At Friday’s event, all semifinalists, finalists and winners will receive special recognition and awards.
For the nominations at each school, certified staff
voted for 17 semifinalists, according to the release.
One semifinalist was chosen from Murmil Education Center and each elementary school in the district. Three semifinalists were chosen from both Washington Middle School and Barton Junior High School. Six semifinalists were chosen from El Dorado High School.
The semifinalists wrote application forms, of which judges from the Education Department at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia critiqued. The judges then narrowed the semifinalists down to nine finalists.
The finalists were then observed in their classrooms by the SAU judging committee.
The 17 semifinalists are:
Elementary level
• Hugh Goodwin: Brigitte Haney;
• Northwest: Cara Jobe;
• Retta Brown: Timmy Williams; and
• Yocum: Jamia White.
Middle/junior high level
• Washington: John Thompson, Kelly Reyes and Leia Hickmott.
• Barton: Wendy Strickland, Sarah Huddleston and
Helene Lambert.
High school level
• Murmil: Derrill Smith.
•El Dorado High School: Taylon Steele, Clair Antoon, Stephanie Fussell, Hinton Foster, Katherine Mobbs and
Callie Kittel. The nine finalists include:
Elementary level: Brigitte Haney of Hugh Goodwin, Cara Jobe of Northwest and Jamia White of Yocum. Middle/junior high level: John Thompson of Washington, Leia Hickmott of Washington and Helene Lambert of Barton. High school level: Derrill Smith of Murmil, Taylon Steele of EHS and Hinton Foster of EHS.
Aside from those listed above, honored nominees for the 2018 Teacher Excellence Awards include: Hugh Goodwin: Tina Anthony, Karen Cooper, Lynn Dixon, Donna Fields, Missy Inman, Joely Jackson, Linda McVay, Lara Robbins, Kelsey Smith, Claudia Stevenson, Raven Swint, Amy Tucker, Natalie Vaughn and Sara Whitfield. Northwest: Nancy Bailey, Terry Bass, Kristen Boothe, Roddie Calloway, Bailey Camacho, Jordan Chandler, Christy Cranford, Stacey Fairris, Amy Fulco, Johnna Harmon, Aime Johnson, Janna Moree, Holly Morgan, Jamie Savell, Linda Trostle, Laura Trotter, Cindy Walton and Crystal Wells.
Retta Brown: Brooke Bagwell, Brooke Bonsall, Veronica Curley, Lisa Hooks, Denise Johnson, Katie King, Susan Lawrence, Felice Scott, Tracy Sturgis and Jodie Westfall.
Yocum: Leanne Barnett, Amy Beasley, Nancy Beene, Jean Boerwinkle, Kaitlyn Clark, Chrystal Gilkey, Stacy Gulick, Chasity Hamilton, Kim Ibert, Ashley Johnson, Melissa Laird, Glenda Moore, Casey Orr, Brianna Rodgers, Mary Beth Simpson, Mindy Sivils, Zulema
Valencia and Tammy Waller.
Washington: Breanna Braswell, Kari Carelock, Cecilia Chaves, Tyler Compton, Jesse Edge, Chris Ezell, Rachel Gavin, Debra Guevara, Marissa Hatcher, Shane Hemme, Michael Herren, Elizabeth Higgins, Cathy Holmes, Rebekah Howard, Ethan Kelton, Cameron Leduc, Karla Long, Emily McDaniel, Nicole McPhate, Jennifer Michaels, Abby Moore, Amber Nelson, Jennifer Odom, James Scott, Christina Turner, Maryanne Wiley, Cecilia Williams, Tiffany Williams and Hannah Young.
Barton: Kanedria Andrews, Tyronza Bibby, Scott Bounds, Calandra Brown, Callie Caldwell, Chase Cantrell, Adrianne Carey, De Anthony Curtis, Alisa Davis, Jill Humphreys, Heather Jennings, Jimmy Johnson, Joshua Kingery, Adrian Knapper, Katie Lampo, Ronald Lewis, Jayme Lovelace, Michelle Lyons, Billy Major, Donna McCoy, Kristie Mock, Dee Moss, Timothy Mullenax, Scot Perry, Tonya Sims, Becky Streeter, Nathaniel Sutherland, Katelon Tunstall and Megan Wreyford.
Murmil: Michael Hammock and Vicky Delone.
El Dorado High School: Pate Bauldree, Kris Borovskis, Madison Campbell, Jessica Cantrell, Sarah Craig, Shelly Forbess, Ashley Fox, Betty Fox, Jessica Freeman, Wayne Garner, Sylvia Green, Demetria Guidry, Sara Beth Howard, Candi Jennings, Jamie Lowe, Neville Matthews, Sarah McKibben, Bobbie McClellan, Alex Michaels, Zack Mitchell, Jon Perry Mize, Rebecca Mize, Jennifer Murphy, Nick Nelson, Greg Oden, Ashlie Odom, Penny Owens, Jackie Phillips, Sheri Rankin, Destinee Rogers, Karen Silmon, Jonathan Sutherland, Donnie Tank, Amanda Terrell, Abbey Thomas, Stephanie Thomas, Amy Turbeville, Nancy Ubias and Bethany Yates.