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The Hamblen County School Board recognized several teachers and staff members for their dedicated service to the district at its meeting on Tuesday evening.

The District’s Teachers of the Year recipients were recognized and received a plaque in their honor.

“We have announced our district wide teachers of the year, but we haven’t had a chance to recognize them before the board, so that is what we are going to do today,” Superintendent Arnold Bunch said.

Amanda Maynard was awarded District Teacher of the Year for PreK through fourth grade, Kerry Stacy was awarded for fifth grade to eighth grade and Kevin Parker was awarded for ninth through twelfth.

The board also recognized Principal of the Year, Shelley Green from Lincoln Heights Elementary School, and Supervisor of the Year, Matt Drinnon, Human Resource Department.

The winner of the 2022-2023 District Spelling Bee, Thomas Drinnon, was recognized by the board.

“Thomas was our District Spelling Bee champion this year,” Bunch said. “We had the privilege of having the competition at Meadowview Middle School. It was great competition and we are here to recognize Thomas for all the great things he accomplished and wish him the best moving forward.”

The board then recognized staff throughout the district who have served more than 30 years in the county.

“We did not have a methodology for recognizing staff for their years of service,” Bunch said. “We think it’s critical for teachers to wasn’t to stay with our team and want to work with us and stay as part of our family, so for the first time we are handing our certificates of service for years of service.”

The longest tenured employee, serving 52 years in the district, Sammie Taylor received the first certificate. Hugh Clement, with 50 years of dedicated service received the second award.

The board called on many other employees who served more than 30 years throughout the district.

“We want to thank everyone who have stuck with us for that long, it is very impressive and a great asset to the district that we have so many individuals with a great amount of experience in our schools,” Bunch said. “Now as any staff member reaches 10, 20 or 30 years they will receive a certificate to recognize their dedicated service.”

The board recognized several bookkeepers throughout the district who completed perfect audits.

“Our bookkeepers not only watch all the money and make sure their tracking everything, they do a lot more in the schools and pick up a lot of extra duties,” Bunch said. “There is a trust we have with the community and how we handle the money that comes in the schools and we do it accurately.”

“Today we are recognizing bookkeepers who had perfect audits, who didn’t have any write up and they were clean throughout the entire audit cycle. We are so proud of them for being able to do that, it’s extremely important and impressive.

The board voted unanimously to approve of more than 20 tenure recommendations by Bunch.

“This is a big deal, because before I recommended these I received letters from the principals talking about the quality of teacher these individuals were and what they did in the schools. This isn’t something we take lightly, so congratulations.”

The board adjourned until its next meeting on March 14.