A Springfield elementary vocal music teacher, a high school engineering teacher, a first grade teacher or a middle school special education teacher are all under consideration for a top award.
Springfield Public Schools has named four finalists for its Teacher of the Year for the upcoming 2024-25 school year. The winner will be announced on April 19 during the Celebrate SPS banquet, held by the Foundation for Springfield Public Schools.
More than 275 nominations were made for this year’s award, collected from students, parents, co-workers or supervisors. To be eligible, teachers must have four years of teaching experience in the district.
Nominated teachers were asked to respond to a question from the selection committee, comprised of past Teacher of the Year winners, district leaders, communications department, Springfield NEA and foundation members, according to information from SPS. The question dealt with what they felt was their greatest accomplishment as a teacher.
A top 20 pool was selected, and those semi-finalists were asked to make a video about what they would say to their peers. Four or five finalists are chosen from that group.
The finalists will be interviewed by the committee to determine the winner. The finalists are:
- Julie Buerke, a vocal music teacher at Fremont Elementary.
- Betsy Cannella, an industrial technology teacher at Kickapoo High School.
- Alicia Johnson, a first grade teacher at Twain Elementary.
- Laurie Macy, a special education teacher at Pipkin Middle School.
The winning teacher advances to a competition for Missouri Regional Teacher of the Year. A winner at that level can compete for the Missouri Teacher of the Year program organized by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The current teacher of the year is Robin Davidson, a fourth grade teacher at Wanda Gray Elementary. He has been with SPS since 1999 and has also worked at Reed Academy and Westport Elementary.
