The San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) recently announced this year’s San Joaquin County Teacher of the Year finalists.
Among them is El Portal Middle School’s Staci Diaz, a language arts instructor.
All Teacher of the Year finalists and Classified Employee of the Year winners will be honored on June 9 at the San Joaquin County Classified Employees and Teacher of the Year Awards Celebration Dinner. County classified winners were announced in March.
Honorees will be recognized for their outstanding commitment and dedication to education and San Joaquin County students. The 2021-22 Teacher of the Year will be announced at the dinner, sponsored by Premier Community Credit Union. Proceeds from the event will go toward student events and academic competitions such as the Academic Decathlon, Spelling Bee, Science Olympiad, Mock Trial, and more. The dinner will also be an occasion to recognize the county’s retiring superintendents, Ron Costa of Escalon Unified School District and Brian Stephens of Tracy Unified School District.
El Portal Principal Mark Vos said Diaz is an English Language Arts teacher for sixth grade and also works with the ELD, English Language Development, classes. Vos noted that she also teaches an elective class, PAC, which stands for Peers Actively Communicating.
“It is kind of a precursor to the PIT (Peer Interaction Team) at the high school,” Vos said of the peer support class.
Diaz is in her eighth year teaching at El Portal.
Winners of San Joaquin County Teacher of the Year and Classified Employees of the Year are county nominees for California Department of Education recognition programs. For more information about California Teacher of the Year, go to www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/ct/. For more information about California Classified School Employee of the Year, go to www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/cl/.
Each Classified Employee of the Year and Teacher of the Year finalist will receive $400. The 2021-22 Teacher of the Year will receive $1,000. The award money is courtesy of Premier Community Credit Union.
Along with Diaz from El Portal in the Escalon Unified School District, other finalists for the Teacher of the Year honor are Tammy Hurst, Altamont Elementary School, Lammersville Unified School District; Gary Pease, Jefferson School, Jefferson Elementary School District; Annie Thompson, Ripona Elementary School, Ripon Unified School District; and Robert Winterhalter, Lodi High School, Lodi Unified School District.
The 2022 San Joaquin County Classified Employees of the Year, announced in March, include:
Clerical and Administrative Services, Kelly Cabral, Tom Hawkins Elementary School, Jefferson Elementary School District;
Custodial and Maintenance Services, Arthur Medina, Lincoln Unified School District;
Food and Nutrition Services, Shelly Metcalfe, Lathrop Elementary School, Manteca Unified School District;
Health And Student Services, Hector Calderon, one.Program, San Joaquin County Office of Education;
Paraprofessional, Mary Gomez, Waterloo Middle School, Linden Unified School District;
Security Services, Lilia Martinez DeAredondo, Great Valley Elementary School, Manteca Unified School District;
Skilled Trades, Debra Yanez, Stockton Unified School District;
Technical Services, Kitty Towers, Banta Unified School District.
The 2022 San Joaquin County Classified Employees and Teacher of the Year Awards Celebration Dinner is set for 6 p.m., Thursday, June 9 at the San Joaquin County Office of Education, Wentworth Education Center, Burwood Auditorium at 2707 Transworld Drive, Stockton.
The San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) provides educational leadership, resources, and services to support schools throughout the county. For more information, visit www.sjcoe.org.
Premier Community Credit Union was founded in 1931 in the midst of the Great Depression. A handful of local educators gathered to form a nonprofit, financial cooperative – Stockton Teachers Credit Union – to provide much needed personal financial services to educators. Over the past 81 years, the credit union has grown and thrived, while maintaining its strong ties to the education community.
To share the financial services with other parts of the community, the credit union has expanded the benefits of membership to all of San Joaquin County communities. While it expanded, Premier Community Credit Union has always been dedicated to the education community in San Joaquin County – one of the reasons why they are sponsoring the Classified Employees and Teacher of the Year Awards Celebration Dinner. For more information, visit www.premierccu.org.
