CONGRATULATIONS

Media Specialist Kerry Hastings has created a culture of reading at Tangelo Park Elementary. Her library is an inspirational, welcoming space. She brings in every class weekly to read together, conduct projects and pick out books. She started a school-wide reading incentive program, hosts parent/child literacy activities at monthly Family Nights, leads a popular weekly Book Club and sponsors the school Battle of the Books program. Her influence also stretches beyond the media center walls. She supports the fourth-grade writing program, works with a student group during the school’s daily extra hour of intensive reading, mentors other teachers and assists with school technology. Her passion and the relationships she nurtures have led to student excitement around reading and learning.

When Village Park Elementary opened in 2021, Francisco Cardoza jumped right in. In his classroom, students are welcomed with a handshake and a high-five. He infuses motivational chants and songs into his daily instruction and is known for radical classroom transformations, such as turning his room into a NASCAR race track while teaching force and motion. He started the school’s National Elementary Honor Society chapter and Safety Patrol, leads a house, helps run the school’s Amazing Shake initiative – which teaches professional skills to students – and regularly tutors and mentors students. At Village Park Elementary, a majority of the students speak Spanish. As a native Spanish-speaker and former English-language learner, Cardoza offers the same encouragement and high expectations that his own teachers had for him.

The children with the most behavioral needs, the unmotivated students and the struggling ones inspire Melissa Williams. At Washington Shores Elementary, she is known for building relationships with some of the most challenging students, even those not in her grade level. Students are sent to her classroom when they need a change of environment, and she works to help them improve their ability to express their needs and respond appropriately. Williams has helped lead her school’s efforts to address students’ post-pandemic social and emotional needs and get children to read in a classroom setting. She models classroom management for other teachers and regularly seeks feedback so she can do even better. Williams has seen her efforts pay off in academic performance, as well as in students’ engagement in school.