Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Spring Branch ISD schools have named 48 elementary and secondary educators as their annual campus Teacher of the Year winners and nominees for district honors. 

This year, campus staff and community-based parents and other residents submitted 1,532 separate nominations; 781 SBISD educators in all were nominated for this top-level professional recognition.

This district recognition program is now generously supported by the Sterling McCall Auto Group, which presented its inaugural Going the Extra Mile Award last year. The auto group presented a 1-year, leased car from its Houston dealership, David Taylor Cadillac, to Memorial High School journalism teacher Holly Hartman, who represents SBISD as Secondary Teacher of the Year. She was also named Region 4 Secondary Teacher of the Year last summer.

In the weeks ahead, the district’s Teacher of the Year Committee will review campus-based nomination materials and then committee members will vote by mid-March to pick elementary and three secondary finalists for 2019 SBISD Teacher of the Year.

Later this spring, the district’s Teacher of the Year Committee will conduct interviews with finalists and then select a top candidate at each teaching level.

In April, SBISD Superintendent of Schools Scott R. Muri will recognize all six finalists and publicly announce the district’s 2019 Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year.

Final winners will be named during the annual Service Awards Celebration, which will be held on Tuesday, April 23, at Minute Maid Park. The district winners will be named during the planned Houston Astros baseball game.

As top district winners, this year’s winning educators will receive a trophy-style Golden Apple award, as well as other awards and recognitions, including a $1,000 cash prize funded by Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital and the First Community Credit Union, and a district-sponsored $2,000 professional growth stipend.

SBISD Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year will then go on to compete in regional competition. If successful there, they’ll compete for a top state honor – Texas Teacher of the Year.

During recent decades, SBISD has had four teachers named regional and state Teachers of the Year. Many more district-level educators have either been regional-level finalists or earned a variety of district, state and national awards.

SBISD 2019 Teachers of the Year:

Prekindergarten

The Bear Boulevard School for Early Learning, Emily Swope
The Lion Lane School for Early Learning, Erica Bristor
The Panda Path School for Early Learning, Bailey Richey
The Tiger Trail School for Early Learning, Mandy Gordillo Guillen
The Wildcat Way School for Early Learning, Jessica Singletary

Elementary Schools

Bendwood School, Colleen Mitchell
Buffalo Creek Elementary, Bandy Monroe
Bunker Hill Elementary, Melissa Farber
Cedar Brook Elementary, Joanne Lopez-Caraballo
Edgewood Elementary, Gladys Baez
Frostwood Elementary, Elizabeth Eggleston
Hollibrook Elementary, Gabriela Rios 
Housman Elementary, Michelle Pratt Clements
Hunters Creek Elementary, Linda Beinhauer
Meadow Wood Elementary, Ami Rapp
Memorial Drive Elementary, Amanda Gerber
Nottingham Elementary, Lindsay Ripley
Pine Shadows Elementary, Pablo Ocanas
Ridgecrest Elementary, Candy Carl
Rummel Creek Elementary, Taylor Suszko
Shadow Oaks Elementary, Luis Garcia Rico
Sherwood Elementary, Jermaine Hudson
Spring Branch Elementary, Robert Arnold
Spring Shadows Elementary, Vivian Urrutia
Terrace Elementary, Eric Murillo
Thornwood Elementary, Arlene Buckingham
Treasure Forest Elementary, Madeline Escribano Rossy
Valley Oaks Elementary, Jessica O’Neill
Westwood Elementary, Alejandra Farias
Wilchester Elementary, Sharon Crump
Woodview Elementary, Isabel Arras-Osborne

Secondary Schools

Academy of Choice, Shelbie Darilek
Cornerstone Academy, Linda Bosworth 
District Alternative Education Program (DAEP), Twinkleisia Francis
Guthrie Center for Excellence, Juliette Pye
Landrum Middle School, Amanda Campos
Memorial High School, Rachel Briscoe
Memorial Middle School, Shelby Shelton
Northbrook High School, Wayne De Almeida
Northbrook Middle School, Elizabeth Snelling
Spring Branch Middle School, Panayota Pace
Spring Forest Middle School, Ryan Harvey
Spring Oaks Middle School, Breyanna Dennis
Spring Woods High School, Wilbert Banks
Spring Woods Middle School, Annie King 
Stratford High School, Kelli Bolen
Westchester Academy for International Studies, Maria Monreal

Spring Branch Academic Institute, Kelly Treleaven