BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Lawtey resident was recognized as Clay County’s Teacher of the Year, and an instructor at Keystone Heights Elementary School won the Clay Education Foundation’s inaugural Rookie of the Year award.
Clay Education Foundation officers lauded both recipients during the Clay County School Board’s March 7 meeting. The pair was initially recognized during the foundation’s Apple Awards program on Feb. 8 at the Thrasher-Horne Center.
Teacher of the Year Robin Campbell leads the science department at Wilkinson Junior High between Clay Hill and Middleburg. Her husband, Ryan Campbell, is a physical education teacher at Starke Elementary.
During the February ceremony, Campbell’s co-workers said she simplifies complex topics for her students and can instill excitement and curiosity into her lessons.
Sanders is a self-contained teacher for students with emotional-behavioral disorders. She started work at Keystone Heights Elementary in 2019 as a paralegal, worked as a behavioral health assistant while earning her bachelor’s degree, and became a teacher in 2022.
During the March 7 school board meeting, foundation officers Gi Teevan, Michael Rathjen, and Terry Hicks also recognized the School-Related Employee of the Year: Philip Turturro from Doctors Inlet Elementary School.
Teevan said the foundation began sponsoring the Teacher-of-the-Year Award 15 years ago and has since expanded its support of Clay County public schools to running a teacher supply store four times a year and underwriting the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which gives books to children from birth through age five.
The foundation leaders also thanked School Board member Mary Bolla for her support over the last eight years as the foundation’s liaison to the school board.
Bolla said she volunteered to serve as liaison because the nonprofit awarded her a Great Ideas grant as a teacher.
“As a teacher,” she said, “the Grants for Great Ideas were huge for just those opportunities to expand our curriculum just enough to give kids hands-on experiences or to give kids opportunities to work with different manipulatives in math or science fair-type projects, tools, etc.”
