Moreland honors teachers, staff and volunteers as People of the Year

Board President Heather Sutton called the Moreland School District meeting to order and opened a People of the Year celebration that honored teachers, classified staff and volunteers from every school in the district. "I am board president Heather Sutton, and I'm thrilled to welcome you this evening," Sutton said as the district began its recognitions.

Superintendent Dr. Clover Codd said the district was "thrilled to honor our colleagues and our volunteers tonight," and thanked staff, board members and families for their support. Emcee Dr. Jennifer Baldwin outlined the ceremony format: principals and assistant principals introduced volunteer, classified and certificated honorees from each school, who then stood together for board recognition.

At Anderson Elementary, Jeanette Escobar introduced Norma Fuerte as the Employee of the Year for Anderson's licensed preschool program, noting her 19 years at Anderson State Preschool. Anderson also honored Lindsay Edmonds as Classified Person of the Year for transforming the school library and Nicole Krause as the certificated person of the year for leadership with student council and mentoring.

Baker School named volunteer Natalie Richter for her role creating Dusty's Garden, classified employee Kathleen Villanueva for front-office and community work, and teacher Debbie Pavlos as Baker's teacher of the year. Country Lane, Latimer, Kean, Payne and Moreland Middle School similarly presented volunteer, classified and certificated winners from their campuses; examples included Gauri Pradhan (Payne volunteer), Julie Schumacher (Latimer certificated reading intervention teacher) and Veronica Trejo (Moreland Middle classified employee and Spanish-speaking liaison).

From the pool of school winners, the district selected one representative in each category to represent Moreland as a whole. Melissa Run was named district Volunteer of the Year; presenters said she has served seven years as president of the Moreland Education Foundation and helped expand arts, music and enrichment opportunities across the seven Moreland schools. Lindsay Edmonds was named district Classified Person of the Year and Debbie Pavlos was named district Teacher of the Year. Evangeline Reyes was recognized as the district's management employee of the year and was noted for 17 years in Moreland and recent service as chief business official.

The celebration concluded with thanks and a reception invitation. President Sutton said the board meeting would resume in 15 minutes in the boardroom and that the rest of the meeting was available in person or online.