Pursuit of Excellence Awards Winners for January 2019

Congratulations to the following employees who are the January 2019 recipients of the Pursuit of Excellence Award for the Baldwin County School District.

Ms. Rita Barnes School Counselor at Midway Hills Primary School Nominated by Mandy Hopkins, co-worker

Ms. Rita Barnes returned to the Baldwin County School District as a school counselor this year. She worked with the district previously as a special education teacher. Since she has returned to the district, Ms. Barnes has made a positive impression on her co-worker, Mandy Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins notes that Ms. Barnes has been an excellent addition to the staff at Midway Hills Primary School. She works tirelessly to support the teachers and students. Ms. Barnes is focused on assisting teachers with the RTI processes and has worked very hard to learn all that she can about MHP School since returning to the district this year. Ms. Barnes is praised for being an awesome listener and for bringing lots of great suggestions during collaboration with faculty and staff. The most impressive thing about Ms. Barnes in Ms. Hopkin’s opinion, is that Ms. Barnes makes home visits and will go out of her way to engage with parents when necessary. Ms. Barnes tries to help eliminate barriers between parents and the school, and Ms. Hopkins appreciates Ms. Barnes very much. Ms. Barnes, thank you for your example of excellence!

Mr. Barry Reese English Teacher at Baldwin High School

Nominated by Amie Caruso, co-worker Mr. Barry Reese is new to the Baldwin County School District and to the education profession. He began his employment with the school district during the 2017-2018 school year and wasted no time in making a positive impact on student. Although this is only Mr. Reese’s second year in education, Ms. Caruso often forgets that he is a novice educator. He is commended for completing the GATAPP credentialing process in only one year. This program can take up to three years to complete, sometimes even longer. In addition to completing the teacher certification process, Mr. Reese is commended for his exemplary content knowledge. He also works to builds relationships with his students, and always extends a helping hand to his colleagues. Ms. Caurso also commends Mr. Reese for exceeding the expectations of a new teacher and says that Baldwin High School is fortunate.to have Mr. Reese as a member of the staff. Mr. Reese, thank you for modelling excellence!

Ms. Ashley Arthur Bracewell Teacher at Midway Hills Academy Nominated by Charlotte Sills, co-worker Ms. Ashley Bracewell joined the Baldwin County School District three years ago. Her co-worker, Ms. Sills notes that Ms. Bracewell teaches as if she has been teaching for more than three years. She is described as being very professional and knowledgeable of all content areas that she teaches. These contents include reading, language arts and writing. In addition to her work with students, Ms. Bracewell supports her co-workers. Ms. Sills gives the example of Mrs. Bracewell creating the presentation slides for the “Mornin' Meetings” for the entire school for the past two years. In addition to creating the presentation slides, Ms. Bracewell makes flipcharts for Bookworms and shares the flipcharts with all of the third grade ELA teachers. Mrs. Bracewell does all of this on her own time and shares with everyone unconditionally. She is commended for her knowledge of the Bookworms program and her knowledge of the program is apparent in her daily lessons and the progress that her students are making with Bookworms. Mrs. Bracewell is liked and respected by the faculty and staff as well as the students. Ms. Sills states that “there is no teacher that I have taught within my 24 years of teaching that exemplifies "excellence" more than Mrs. Bracewell”. Ms. Bracewell, thank you for being a shining example of excellence!