BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Union County School District thanked a 21-year employee during the June 24 school board meeting.
Elizabeth Vandiver spent her first 16 years teaching in Jacksonville before making Lake Butler Elementary School her home over the last two decades.
The school’s former dean, Stephanie Sellers, now an assistant principal at the high school, joined Principal Michelle Fuist and Superintendent Mike Ripplinger in honoring the exceptional student teacher.
Fuist said she appreciated Vandiver’s initiative.
“Ms. Vandiver is one of those ladies who has initiative,” she said, “and you’re like, ‘Hey, I need a couple of people to do this new project.’ You haven’t even explained the project. And she’s like, ‘Pick me, pick me.’”
Sellers added that the retiree has impacted countless lives, including the former dean’s.
“The impact you had on my professional life is profound,” she told Vandiver.
The outgoing instructor is a two-time teacher of the year, once in Jacksonville. She won the honor at Lake Butler Elementary in 2006.
In an interview with the Times earlier this year, Vandiver said she will miss her students the most.
“Teaching little people to read and their smiling faces,” she said. “They’re always very encouraging and loving, and they make your bad days better. I will miss working with them the most.”
