The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Twenty teachers and teachers’ aides were honored June 5 as the best in the district at the annual Educators of the Year Breakfast, held at the Imperia by Dhaba on Easton Avenue.
Each of the District’s 10 schools honored their Teacher of the Year and Educational Services Professional of the Year.
The event is a way for the district to “honor our support personnel and our teachers who are nominated by their peers and school community to be recognized as exemplary educators,” schools Superintendent John Ravally said.
“I think it’s very important to give them the honor that they are due and not only that, help others to strive for the same level of expertise, the same level of accomplishment that they’ve all reached,” he said. “So really, we hope others will emulate their work is what we do, so we try and highlight it.”
Ravally brought the practice to Franklin 10 years ago from his prior Superintendent position in Ocean County.
There, he said, teachers and aides were honored on a County wide level.
“So we decided we were large enough to do something like this on our own and celebrate our own folks given the number of schools we had,” he said.
“Now (Somerset) county does do a program very similar,” he said. “And so our educators of the year actually celebrated with the whole county back in May.”
Ardaman Singh, president of the Board of Education, said the event is important because it allows the District to “celebrate our staff and really recognize the work they have been doing, because sometimes the work that they do goes unrecognized, and they are bringing change to the school, the school community, and are the mentors for our children.”
“This is just a little part that we get to recognize them and see them as humans,” she said.
Teachers and aides recognized were:
- Franklin High School: Joseph Dobis and Sheyna Britton
- Franklin Middle School – Hamilton Street Campus: Victoria Escott and Debra Osman
- Franklin Middle School – Sampson G. Smith Campus: Lee Blum and Danielle Lewis
- Claremont Elementary School: Robyn Becker and Rebecca Benevento
- Conerly Road School: Toni Westfield and Alexandra Thomas
- Elizabeth Avenue School: Fawnya Gibson and Wendy Krushinski
- Franklin Park School: Melinda Velez and Cheryl Wise
- Hillcrest School: Kylie Berko and Rosemarie Earley
- MacAfee Road School: Wilma Rosikiewicz and Ronald Haskins
- Pine Grove Manor School: Alpa Sadarangani and Julie Ginsberg Ferraro
Here are some scenes from the event:
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