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Tagged by the Superintendent
One employee at every school is selected for this honor each semester. The award is given based on the employee's dedication and service to the field of education and to the students of Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

Nicole Cabral, computer resource specialist, Rosemont Elementary School
Kim Guevara, preschool special education teacher, Cooke Elementary School
Lee Troxell, digital design instructor, Advanced Technology Center

I Make a Difference
The I Make A Difference award is given to an employee of the school to recognize his or her accomplishments and contributions to the educational process and to the students. Employees are nominated by a fellow employee for the award.

Alanton Elementary School
Jane Cheek, teacher assistant
Leslie Harden, bookkeeper
Tennys Kane, first-grade teacher
Kay Phillips, library media specialist

Arrowhead Elementary School
Sue Carroll, security assistant
Tonya Davidson, permanent substitute
Connie Szymanski, library assistant
Wilma Warren, cafeteria monitor

Bayside Middle School
Susan Carden, art teacher
Bill Davis, orchestra and chorus teacher
Carla Morris, seventh-grade science teacher
Janet Rutherford, guidance secretary
David Snead, band and chorus teacher

Brookwood Elementary School
Janet Garner, kindergarten assistant
Susan Kerr, kindergarten teacher

Creeds Elementary School
Sherri Nicholson, teacher assistant
Anne Schaech, third-grade teacher
Diane Vandergiessen, resource teacher

Diamond Springs Elementary School
Mary Conlee, first-grade teacher
MJ Fama, Reading Recovery teacher
Sharon McPherson, first-grade teacher
Kenyett Olds, kindergarten teacher assistant
Elizabeth Panchik, special education teacher
Kimberly Wingenfeld, art teacher

Fairfield Elementary School
Barbara Allen, custodian
Jo Anne Grimm, library media assistant
Teresa Hembree, library media specialist
Gary Lennon, computer resource specialist
Nita Manimbao, custodian assistant
Jean Ott, cafeteria monitor
Debra VanKleef, cafeteria assistant

First Colonial High School
Beth Absher, security assistant
Vicki Meuer, administrative assistant
Laura L. White, cafeteria manager

Glenwood Elementary School
Jackie Guzman, special education assistant
Angie Sullivan, kindergarten teacher

Green Run Elementary School
Jennifer Baines, fourth-grade teacher
Elizabeth Hawkins, physical education assistant
Fred Isaacson, cafeteria monitor
Sandra Lebo, library assistant
Amanda Lewis, vision Itinerant

Holland Elementary School
Barney Burks, security assistant
Diane Hughes, day custodian
Maria Vega-McBride, PALs teacher

Kempsville Middle School
Kelly Hackett, sixth-grade science teacher
Lisa Hagen, band teacher
Leigh Simms, library media specialist
Mary Sutterluety, eighth-grade English teacher
Cathy Tesnow, eighth-grade math teacher

Landstown Middle School
Victoria Kelley, Spanish Immersion teacher
Diane Tarkenton, gifted resource teacher
Melanie Walsh, special education coordinator and department chair

Larkpsur Middle School
Jeanette Duesberry
, eighth-grade math teacher
Cathleen Ingham, eighth-grade math teacher
Billie Rawles, school improvement specialist

Lynnhaven Elementary School
Pam Ballard, first-grade teacher
Bernadine Hines, reading recovery teacher

Lynnhaven Middle School
Carolyn Brown, art teacher
Pete Schenck, seventh-grade social studies teacher
Carol Smith, orchestra teacher

New Castle Elementary School
Gloria Mercer
, first-grade teacher

Salem High School
Debbie Baumgardner, office associate
Nancy Davis, cafeteria manager
Beatrice Harris, cafeteria assistant
Connie Melvin, office associate
Wellinthon Munoz, school improvement specialist

Salem Middle School
Dayla Brown, student support specialist
Shelly Bryant, school resource officer
Dana Cho, eighth-grade special education teacher
Amy Garber, school office associate
Jim Leland, sixth- and seventh-grade English teacher
Randy Pilon, social studies teacher, special education
Ed Thomas, seventh grade inclusion/resource math teacher

Special Education Annex
Barbara Gallagher, occupational therapist
Katrina Hutsko, early childhood special education teacher
Kasey Sabo, physical therapist
Val Wesseldine, early childhood special education teacher

Windsor Oaks Elementary School
Bonnie Conway, kindergarten assistant
Marilyn Corillo, library assistant
Corinne Cornwell, third-grade teacher
Kim Daniels, second-grade teacher
Linda Hefner, school nurse
Andrea Holt, second-grade teacher
Deana Hubbell, third-grade teacher
Mary Lou Kantirakis, office manager
Ned Nelson, custodian
Carrie Noriega, second-grade teacher
Denise Read, reading specialist
Liesl Rockenbaugh, kindergarten teacher

School and Office Awards and Recognitions
Congratulations to Kempsville Middle School (KMS) on winning the "Academic Challenge" city championship sponsored by the Virginia Beach Middle School League. The KMS team comprising 13 students is coached by sixth-grade teacher Kelly Hackett.

The Salem Middle School SCA sponsored a "Miracle Balloons" project to raise money for Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.(CHKD). Students purchased "balloons" for dollar donations during all lunch bells from Monday, January 11 through Friday, January 15. Six hundred and thirty eight paper balloons decorated the cafeteria walls, representing the amount of money collected and donated to the hospital. Congratulations to Salem Middle School students for their caring and thoughtful generosity.

A big round of applause to Cooke Elementary staff for the funding they have received from grants this year. As of January, Cooke Elementary has received nearly $15,000 from the Youth Foundation of Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach Education Foundation, Virginia Beach Jaycees, Boeing, and Target. The school is also the recipient of an additional $2,000 in the form of donations from local businesses, organizations, and civic groups.

The Technical and Career Education Center Dental Assisting class participated in the American Dental Association's (ADA) "Give Kids a Smile®" program on February 5.This is a community outreach program that provides much needed dental care to the dentally uninsured. Local dentists donated their valuable time to this worthy cause in the Tech Center’s fully-equipped dental lab. This is a national program during which approximately 45,000 dental professionals across the country provided free dental services to as many as 500,000 children at more than 1,600 sites. Tech Center dental assisting students sat chairside and assisted the dentists, bringing their education in class to the real-world.

The NASA Get ready, Get set, Go green poster contest results are in and Brandon Middle School Chargers had four winners, a second place overall winner and three honorable mentions! The students will receive certificates of achievement at a congratulatory ceremony at Langley in Hampton. Their artwork may also be used in the NASA calendar. This is a huge accomplishment since this was a statewide competition. Congratulations to art teacher Tanya Trumbull.

Salem High School's faculty and staff donated over $1,100 to the Red Cross's Haiti Relief Fund. In addition, English teacher Sandy Baker and her students organized schoolwide fundraisers that raised over $1,300 and Family and Consumer Science students also collected jeans to send to Haiti.

Kempsville High School (KHS) students and staff raised $2,000 which they donated to the Red Cross for Haiti earthquake relief. Donations were collected through all social studies classes and in the guidance office. Teachers contributed a minimum of $5.00 to wear jeans on Friday. Margaret Felts, U.S. government teacher and senior class advisor, spearheaded the week-long fundraiser which had a personal connection for KHS. Head custodian Albert Valery is from Haiti and still has family in the country.

On February 4th, Salem High School's AP U.S. History class and U.S. Government classes participated in Virginia Aerospace Day's Web-based discussion with Senator Frank Wagner, Delegate Ron Villanueva, and NASA representatives. They discussed politics, the economy, and other social studies curriculum topics that coincide with NASA initiatives.

Selected students of Christopher Farms Elementary fifth-grade teachers Deb Gaskin and Donna Bagnall participated in the Battle of the Books Competition at the Central Library on February 20. The teams read 11 books from the Competition List and went up against teams from across the city answering questions about the books. The winning teams from each city library now move on to finals in March.

Congratulations to Kempsville High School’s Advanced Marketing Classes on hosting a successful fashion show, "Fashion in Wonderland" on Friday, February 19. The show highlighted spring fashions from such stores as Dillard's, Cache, Astoria, Foxers, Rue 21, Coastal Edge, Bahama Shop, Apricot Lane, Maya Couture, Men's Wearhouse, and Black Label. In addition the advanced art classes also exhibited their creations. Hair and makeup creations were done by Rudy & Kelly School of Hair Design. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales were donated to the Haiti Relief Fund!

Help for Haiti Day was recently held at Pembroke Elementary School. On February 3, students and staff held a fundraiser that involved students and staff bringing quarters to school to buy paper links to make a chain. All told, $1,034.16 was raised for the earthquake victims in Haiti. The paper chain is now decorating the halls of Pembroke Elementary. The school’s PEBBLES Ecology Club sponsored this event.

Congratulations to Cox High School’s Environmental Club, led by gifted resource teacher Virginia O'Malley, on its goal of improving the environmental consciousness of students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community. To that end, club members engage on numerous “green” activities, among them recycling cell phones and bottle caps and collecting rain water in barrels for gardens. The Environmental Club has also earned Cox its first ever Pearl School Award, an award for environmental education and for starting projects to clean up the surrounding area.

Together Strawbridge Elementary teachers and students raised almost $1,300, wearing "Hats for Haiti" on February 5. Well done!

Kudos to Kempsville High School students, staff and basketball fans on holding a "Pack the House Pink Out" fundraiser on Friday, February 5 at the home basketball game. They raised $140 dollars for the Susan B. Komen Foundation to battle breast cancer.

Two Fairfield Elementary School teams, the Rampaging Readers and the Babbling Books, took third and fourth place in the Battle of the Books at the Public Library on February 16. Fifth-grade teacher Krystina Morgan serves as sponsor to the teams.

The Fairfield Elementary PTA has started a new program called PTA Cares. Every month the students, faculty, and parents collect items or money to meet a community need outside of the school. Last month, they collected recycled Christmas cards to give to nursing homes for crafts and projects. This month they are collecting socks for needy children. Next month they will be collecting tarps and tents that can be used for temporary shelters for earthquake victims in Haiti.

The GLAM (Girls Learning Achieving Motivating) group at Fairfield Elementary School made scarves for the “homeless to housing” program which operates under the auspices of ROC (Reaching Our Communities, Inc. GLAM is a program designed for fifth-grade girls to build self esteem, self confidence, and social awareness. GLAM coordinators are art teacher Jennifer Mazur, fourth-grade teacher Linda Whitehead, and guidance counselor Carrie Sully. Each girl has a staff sponsor, and sponsors take turns leading the activities. Second-grade teacher Laura Burnette and fourth-grade teacher Julia Neufer taught the girls how to make the scarves, and fourth-grade teacher Linda Whitehead delivered the scarves to the nursing home.

Individual Awards and Recognitions
Adult Learning Center (ALC) ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) academic coordinator Paul Palombo deserves congratulations for the recent recognition the fall ALC catalogue received. He oversees the process of creating the catalogue from inception to final printing, keeping everything on track.

Congratulations to Princess Anne High School psychology students who collected $2,000 in pennies to send to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. Psychology teacher Betsy Fuqua is department head.

Congratulations to Kellam High School English teacher John Merritt on his creative method for communicating with parents. Here is a recent sample from Merritt’s Web site:

Greetings, Parents! Just a couple of quick reminders for this week…

  • T minus one week and counting before the Lifelines midterm exam project is due. I assigned Lifelines three weeks ago, but procrastination is an evil demon lurking around our school, so if you’ll please push your children a little bit on this one, I’d really appreciate it. This counts as half of their midterm exam grade; the other half is an objective test of fifty questions.  I gave them this exam review sheet to help them. 
  • Last week I took my classes to the Instructional Resource Center here in Virginia Beach.  This is a great place full of resources for when my students begin their internships. 
    Because I’m scatter-brained, I completely forgot to take pictures of block 4A, but here
    are some pictures of when I took 3A. Everyone had a great time there. Ask them about it!

That should bring you up to date.  Have a great week!  --john

Congratulations to Dana Cho, Salem MIddle School eighth-grade special education teacher, for her recent promotion to the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children. Cho was chosen to work with secondary teachers throughout the city with the VGLA!

Kudos to the director of the Office of Gifted Education Kelly Hedrick who has been asked to serve on the Statewide Advisory Council for the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary. The purpose of the Council is to provide input on how the Center can best serve the needs of gifted children and those who work with gifted children throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Kudos to Salem Middle School health and physical education teacher Katie Warnock, who was recently selected to serve on the Health Textbook Adoption Committee. Congratulations also to Patricia Rogerson, eighth-grade AVID teacher, who was acknowledged by Curriculum and Instruction for her assistance in training AVID tutors.

Congratulations to teachers at Bayside High School for raising $600 by paying a minimum of $5 for the privilege of wearing jeans during midterm exams. The funds will be donated to the American Red Cross for Haiti Relief.

Congratulations to Kempsville High School band director Timothy A. Gauldin on having 19 members of the band selected for the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association District II All-District Band. These students were selected from hundreds of other band members from the public and private high schools of Virginia Beach, Norfolk and the Eastern Shore. Two members of the group were invited to audition for the All-Virginia Band.

Congratulations to Princess Anne High School Teacher of the Month for December psychology teacher Betsy Fuqua and Teacher of the Month for January history teacher Leon Proffitt.

Woodstock Elementary first-grade teacher Emily Rudige was selected to serve on the school division's Grade 1 Science Curriculum Committee.

Green Run Elementary School physical education assistant Elizabeth Hawkins was awarded "Staff Member of the Quarter" honors for the second quarter by the Green Run Homes Association.

Hermitage Elementary is proud to announce that Denise Smith, gifted resource teacher, is the school’s 2011 Teacher of the Year!

Congratulations to Special Education Annex speech/language pathologist Lynn Adams on her selection as 2011 Teacher of the Year.

Floyd E. Kellam High School recently named Amy Wellens as its Teacher of the Year for 2011. Wellens is an English teacher, who began her career in California before coming to Virginia Beach eight years ago. In addition to teaching English, journalism and dual enrollment, she serves as both the yearbook and newspaper adviser. One of the highlights of her job, in her words, is getting to "work with amazing kids, dedicated coworkers, and supportive administration who work together to produce free thinkers who are ready to take on whatever challenges life brings them."

Congratulations to physical education specialist Brent Cashman who has been selected Tallwood Elementary's 2011 Teacher of the Year.

Tracie Hamilton, a third-grade teacher, has been selected Tallwood Elementary's Reading Teacher of the Year. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Princess Anne High School mathematics teacher Cindy Edwards who was named the school’s 2011 Teacher of the Year. Congratulations also to gifted resource teacher Paula Raines, science teacher Jamie Durbin, English teacher Jacqueline Davis, and Spanish teacher Rachel Thompson, all of whom were named Distinguished Teachers.

Congratulations to Classroom on the Mall teacher Kim Creamer, who is the Advanced Technology Center’s Teacher of the Year. Read about her and her class in a recent edition of Tidewater Teacher.
http://www.vbatc.com/pdfs/TidwaterTeacher_KimCreamerNov_Dec_09.pdf

Lee Troxell, digital design instructor at the Advanced Technology Center, was recently named Teacher of the Year. Congratulations!

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