Volusia County Schools names Teacher of the Year finalists

Written by Anthony Bicy

Belden Communications News

Volusia County Schools has named its five finalists for the Volusia County Schools Teach of the Year award. Those teachers are: 

• Eli Freidus, Science Teacher, Seabreeze High School
• Kristie Long, Science Teacher, Mainland High School
• Madison Miller, Academic Coach, Chisholm Elementary
• Keisha Wallace, Math Coach, Campbell Middle School
• Joan Wheeler, Blended Pre-K Teacher, Pathways Elementary

To be considered for the title, Each Volusia school nominates a teacher and fills out an application. A group of parents, business owners, teachers, administrators, and community members file through the applications until picking the five finalists. A sub-committee then ranks the finalists after observing them in their classrooms and interviewing them. Once they have a winner, the group keeps it secret until the celebration.

The current Teacher of the Year is Frank Garaitonandia, an Art Teacher at Citrus Grove Elementary School, serves as Volusia’s representative of quality education, and is now a finalist for Florida’s Teacher of the Year.

The list of all nominated teachers can be found at:

https://www.vcsedu.org/news/volusia-schools-select-teachers-the-year-1.