Mississippi Teacher of the Year, alternate announced
 

Paul Cuicchi

JACKSON – Starkville High School teacher Paul Cuicchi was named Mississippi’s 2002 Teacher of the Year during a banquet held Wednesday evening at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Jackson. Cheryl Beene, a teacher at South Panola High School in the South Panola School District, was selected as Alternate Teacher of the Year. Cuicchi and Beene were selected from a group of finalists from each of the state’s five congressional districts announced earlier in the month. Other finalists included: Bobbie Clifton of Shelby Middle School in the North Bolivar School District; Dot McClendon of West Lincoln Attendance Center in the Lincoln County School District; and Debra L. Melaney of Beauvoir Elementary School in the Biloxi Public School District. “It is wonderful to be surrounded tonight by such an outstanding group of educators,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Richard Thompson. “All of them have dedicated their lives to educating our young people.”

Each school district is asked to submit a Teacher of the Year nominee. Applications are evaluated by an independent committee. Regional finalists are then interviewed for the title of Teacher of the Year.

“The individuals nominated this year are truly exceptional,” said Mississippi Teacher Center Director Daphne Buckley, whose office coordinates the annual program. “The selection committee did not have an easy task when selecting an overall winner.”

Cuicchi will receive a $5,000 salary supplement paid by the Mississippi Department of Education. He will be invited to attend the National Teacher of the Year Conference in Dallas and will also compete in the National Teacher of the Year event.

Cuicchi has 24 years of teaching experience, including 20 years in his current position. In 1999, he received National Board Certification in Adolescent/Young Adult Science, and the next year he served as a mentor to help other exemplary science teachers through this rigorous process. Since 1999, he has been a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Mississippi State University’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Throughout his teaching career, he has presented at local, state, and national conferences, conducted training sessions, and served in many leadership capacities. Last year, he co-authored the paper, “Science on the Green,” and presented it at the 123rd National Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Rochester, New York. Dr. Cuicchi has been selected as STAR Teacher eight times by Starkville students with the highest ACT score.

As alternate, Beene will receive a $1,900 personal award. Beene has over 25 years of teaching experience, including four-and-a-half in her current position. Throughout her teaching career, she has held innumerable leadership positions in education associations. Presently, she is serving as State President of the Mississippi Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences and is a State Board member of the Association of Career and Technical Educators. After acquiring National Board Certification in 2001, she served as a mentor to eight candidates in the World Class Teaching Program this year. Beene also serves on her school’s Staff Development Leadership Team that designs programs and activities for students and teachers in an effort to improve scores on the state assessments. In 1992, she was awarded the Mississippi American Home Economics Association Teacher of the Year, and is a 1987 recipient of the Phi Delta Kappa Gold Certificate for Outstanding Teaching.

The Teacher of the Year, alternate and three remaining finalists will receive donations to their schools from Entergy and the College Fund Life Division.

Clifton is a 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Shelby Middle School in the North Bolivar School District. She has 10 years of experience, including two in her current position. In addition to her commitment to her students, her role as Lead Teacher gives her the opportunity to work with veteran and new teachers on innovative instructional practices. Clifton conducts presentations for the National Writing Project of the Mid South Delta Module, Mississippi Council of Teachers of English, the Mississippi Reading Association, the Delta Area Writing Project, and the Mississippi Writing Thinking Institute. She has served as the Curriculum Writer for the Social Studies Primary Guide (1996) and the Curriculum Writer for the Language Arts Framework (1994). During the upcoming school year, she will serve as Vice-President of the Mississippi Reading Association.

McClendon is a Biology, Chemistry, and Physics teacher at West Lincoln in the Lincoln County School District. She 39 years of experience, including 20 in her current position. She holds a two-year reign as Lincoln County’s Teacher of the Year (2000 & 2001). She is also the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Radio-Shack Teacher of the Year (2000), Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year Award (2000), and the Excellence in Education Award (1996). One of the indicators of her successful teaching career is the honor of being selected STAR Teacher 14 times by her outstanding students. McClendon also volunteers countless hours once a month on Saturdays to conduct an ACT preparation workshop, and she also supervises the school’s after-school tutoring program.

Melaney is a sixth grade self-contained teacher at Beauvoir Elementary School in the Biloxi School District. She has nine years of teaching experience, including six in her current position. In 2001, she received National Board Certification and now serves as a mentor for candidates going through the process. She has also extended her teaching experience to the collegiate level by serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Education and Psychology. She is also an active member of several education associations including the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics where she will present two seminars at the Regional Conference in November 2002. Melaney is a recipient of the Educator of the Quarter Award from the Edgewater Rotary Club (2001), the Model Educator Reading Renaissance Award for two consecutive years, the Phi Delta Kappa Distinguished Service Award (1998), and the Knight Ridder Newspaper in Education Teacher of the Year Award (1997).