St. Charles teacher named top Kane educator
A first-grade teacher at Richmond Elementary School in St. Charles is Kane County's Educator of the Year.
The award to Denise Hobbs was presented by the Kane County Regional Office of Education at a banquet Friday night at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.
Hobbs, 57, was inspired by parents who valued education, including the education for a brother with Down syndrome, back in the day when people routinely institutionalized such children.
In an essay accompanying her nomination, Hobbs wrote she recalled her father saying, “We just have to do what he needs.” When she asked how to know that, he told her, “Just watch him closely and he will show you what he needs.”
“Little did I know at that time the wisdom in that statement that would influence me for many years to come,” Hobbs said.
She became a volunteer for Special Olympics and other efforts to help people with disabilities, and received her teaching degree in 1977. She taught for a special education cooperative in Palatine, then in Lombard District 44, before joining the St. Charles school district in 1987.
She has taught kindergarten and other grades at Munhall and Bridges Developmental elementary schools, and was a reading resources teacher at Bell-Graham Elementary, before transferring to Richmond.
One of the letters of recommendation for Hobbs, who lives in Geneva, came from a family whose child she taught in kindergarten and who is now a high school junior. They didn't know it at the time, but the child had dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
“From working on whiteboards to side-by-side reading to lying on her stomach as she read, anything to get (the child's) proficiency up, and it worked. Denise was a wealth of patience and knowledge,” the family wrote.
After the child was diagnosed Hobbs tutored the child for two years at home.
“She went so far beyond what a teacher is expected to do,” the family wrote.
Richmond Principal Guillermo Heredia also appreciates her. Hobbs tacked “administrative assistant” on to her duties when he joined the school, supervising students before and after school and at lunch as necessary, and making administrative decisions when Heredia is absent. This year, because she had a smaller class, she volunteered to take some students off a bilingual teacher's hands.
“When I have questions about instruction or I need a wise opinion, Denise usually has the right answer. I trust her judgment,” Heredia said.
Among the other award recipients:
Ÿ Mary Dudek, secretary to the principal of Gilberts Elementary School, won the support staff award.
Ÿ Jennifer Antonson of Mooseheart was named the private/parochial teacher of the year.
Ÿ Julia S. Cloat, literacy specialist at Kaneland John Stewart Elementary in Elburn, won the R.B. Mades Associate Educator of the Year award.
Ÿ Reading improvement teacher Ann M. Johnson of Hermes Elementary in Aurora is the elementary teacher of the year.
Ÿ Lesley L. Beary, a family and consumer science teacher at Waldo Middle School in Aurora, was named the J.L. Hanson Middle School Teacher of the Year.
Ÿ Cheryl Dispensa of Geneva High School was named the D.L. Hoeft High School Teacher of the Year.
Kenneth M. Arndt, who is retiring in June as superintendent of Community Unit District 300, was named administrator of the year.
The Regional Superintendent's Award was given to Julie Cesaroni of Geneva Middle School South and Therese L. Bauer of Prairie View Grade School in Burlington.
The candidates were nominated by their employers.