HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the school year winding down, three Hutchinson Public Schools staff members have received district honors.
Jamie Brown, district payroll/benefits coordinator, has been named Classified Employee of the Year. Glenna Johnson and Kristi Link have been nominated as the district’s entries in the Kansas National Teacher of the Year competition.
Still to be named are the Davis Teachers of the Year. The Davis Foundation will formally announce the finalists and the winners at the district’s back-to-school convocation on Aug. 12.
Classified Employee of the Year
Jamie Brown has spent her entire adult working career at USD 308. Brown began work for the district as a senior in HCTEA teacher Shirley Yoder’s BPA classes at Hutchinson High School.
Brown began as a file clerk in the district business office in August 1996 doing “a little bit of everything.” At the time, the Business Office was only partially automated, meaning checks were cut manually and all manner of paper was tracked.
She became a payroll clerk assistant in July 1999 and moved up to payroll/benefits coordinator in October 2000.
“What I like the most about the job is getting to help people – helping people understand something that is not at the front of their minds,” Brown said. It’s also special to have a job in which she interacts – and helps – teachers who made her successful as a student in Hutchinson Public Schools.
Brown knows that with her job she deals with sensitive issues each and every day because she deals with pay and benefits. It’s a difficult job at times.
“I want people to feel good when they leave here and not be confused,” she said. “I want them to feel they can ask questions and not feel silly.”
Selected from nominees to the district’s Classified Council, other finalists were Sally Bailey, Faris Elementary School secretary, and Gail Dennis, Hutchinson High School Counseling Center secretary.
Other nominees were Marcia Pyle, Wiley Elementary School custodian; Darryl Ammons, Morgan Elementary School paraprofessional; Shirley Culver, McCandless Elementary School custodian; Marilyn Forbes, Faris aide; Bev Lavy, HHS paraprofessional; Martha Mascarenas, Hutchinson Middle School ESL aide; and Saundra Sanders, Morgan custodian.
Secondary National Teacher of the Year Nominee
A social studies teacher at HHS, Glenna Johnson is another Salthawk to return to the school. Johnson is a board member of the HHS alumni association and has served as the organization’s president.
She sees two things as making a difference for her students.
“There are two strategies that I think make the difference in student learning, forming relationships with students and making the subject relatable to the world today,” Johnson wrote in her application to be the district’s National Teacher of the Year secondary nominee.
Relationships, in particular, are key to success in the classroom. “Students don’t care what you know, they know that you care,” she said.
The biggest challenge educators face is the increasing diversity in the classroom. While most teachers come from a middle-class background, students enter schools with a wider range of experiences.
Johnson previously was a Davis Teacher of the Year for the district in 2011.
Elementary National Teacher of the Year Nominee
Kristi Link teaches first grade at Wiley Elementary School. Like Johnson, Link sees relationships as key to any educator’s success.
“It’s important to me that I develop relationships with each of them and their families,” Link wrote in her application, referring to her students. “I want their families to feel welcome and be encouraged to ask questions and share things with me.”
Link sees education – and society – changing. What adults remember school being is far different today. Technology changes rapidly, bringing both benefits and challenges. One of those challenges is that bullying formerly was a face-to-face experience. Today, students and adults may face bullying from people they never see.
Yet, technology also means Link can connect her students to far-away worlds with just a few clicks of a computer mouse.
Link has been very active providing professional development to her colleagues, both in USD 308 and outside the district. Among her many professional development efforts, Link has co-taught Intel courses online, presented at the district-wide technology day in 2012 and served on building improvement teams through the year.