School Board recognizes teachers, employee of year

Lazaro Aleman

ECB Publishing, Inc.

Nearly three months after the announcement of their selections, the administration of Jefferson-Somerset recognized the recipients of the Teacher and Employee of the Year Awards for 2021-2022 before the Jefferson County School Board on Monday evening, Feb. 8.

Jefferson-Somerset Vice Principal Andre’ Gainey did the honors, presenting each of the three winners with a framed plaque, a monetary check and congratulations.

The Teacher of the Year Award for 2021-2022 went to Indy Mack, a county native, FAMU graduate and third-grade teacher at Jefferson-Somerset who has been in the teaching profession some 28 years.

Mack was also named Jefferson-Somerset Elementary School Teacher of the Year for 2021-2022.

Stefanie Prevatt, an eight-grade science teacher, agriculture advisor and FFA advisor, received the Middle-High School Teacher of the Year Award for 2021-2022. A graduate of the University of Florida and Ohio State University, Prevatt has been teaching three years.

And the recipient of the Employee of the Year Award for 2021 went to Teresa Madison-Precia, a county native and paraprofessional who earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Benedict College in South Carolina. Besides the plaques and words of congratulations, each of the winners were presented with a monetary award courtesy of The First Bank, Capital City Bank and Jefferson County Teachers Credit Union.

Nancy Whitty, activities director at Jefferson-Somerset explained that the time lag between the Nov. 16 announcement of the winners and their recognition before the board resulted from several factors.

These factors, she said, included the time that it had taken to coordinate with the different entities that contributed monetarily to the awardees, the time that it took to have the plaques made and the logistics of finding a timely slot in the once-a-month school board meetings.

Whitty said that Mack would next compete in the Florida Teacher of the Year Award, which is scheduled to be held in Orlando in July, although it remains uncertain at this time whether the event will be conducted in person or virtually via Zoom.

“It used to be that everybody went to Orlando,” Whitty said. “But now with COVID no one’s sure what will happen.”

She explained that the selection process for the teacher awards entailed their colleagues in the elementary and middle-high schools voting for their respective representatives. Meanwhile, the employee of the year was selected by a vote of the entire school, she said.

The winners of the elementary and middle-high school votes then had to submit a narrative and teacher video of a teaching lesson to an administrative committee at the school that then selected the district teacher of the year from the two candidates.

Whitty said that following the announcement of the winners in November, the school’s leadership team visited the individuals in their classrooms or office and presented flowers, balloons and congratulations.