BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. — District teacher of the year in Lexington District 3 is a big deal for them.
Each year, the Batesburg-Leesville district selects a Teacher of the Year for each of their four schools. Out of those four teachers- one will be selected to be the District’s Teacher of the Year with a seriously special prize.
“Tonight, part of the celebration is not only the dinner that honors them and allows them to bring their families to celebrate, but they all will receive prizes as they leave," says Angie Rye, Chief Academic Officer for the district, "All of the prizes are generously donated by community businesses. So they’ll leave with baskets and other things that they get to take but the district teacher of the year is going to be driving away in a brand new car provided by Herlong Chevrolet.”
This year's car is a 2019 Chevy Malibu. The selected teacher gets to drive the car for the year that they are the District Teacher of the Year free of cost.
Rye told us that a lot of the teachers in this small town grew up here and wanted to come back home to teach.
“This is a very small town school district, we have a low turnover rate, we also try to do a lot to make sure that teachers feel appreciated and that they want to be working in this school district," Rye says, "We feel like we have the best kept secret in the state of South Carolina right here in Batesburg-Leesville. We want to make sure that teachers and all of our staff feel recognized and appreciated.”
The finalists for tonight’s district teacher of the year are Michelle Maroney, Kristen Pugh, Kimberly Lawson and Allison Cook.
Good luck from Street Squad!
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