Letters of support needed for Educator of the Year nominee

The nomination committee for Kaneland's Educator of the Year met on Feb. 11 to make their selections. This year, the committee selected the following designees as Kaneland Educators of the Year to be submitted to the Kane County Regional Office of Education for consideration as the Kane County Educator of the Year:

• Anna Richards, elementary teacher, Shields Elementary School.

• Special educator Karen Devereaux, reading resource, Blackberry Creek Elementary School.

• Paraprofessional Leanndra Bowen, support staff, Blackberry Creek.

• Principal Fran Eggleston, administrator, McDole Elementary School.

To complete the nomination process, letters of support for these individuals from staff, parents, students and others in the community who have worked with these people in some way need to be gathered. Send your letters: (for Richards) to Mark Manigold at Shields Elementary School, 85 S. Main St., Sugar Grove, IL 60554; (for Devereaux) to Linda Zulkowski at Blackberry Creek Elementary School, 1122 S. Anderson Road, Elburn IL 60119; (for Bowen) to Barb Messina at Blackberry Creek; and (for Eggleston) to Gwen Carlson at McDole Elementary School, 2901 Foxmoor Drive, Montgomery, IL 60538.

Members of the nominating committee assemble the letters of support along with photographs and/or illustrations into notebooks representing each of the educators.

Letters should be submitted no later than Wednesday, March 18, in order to allow enough time to compile and display the nominees' books properly. Completed books are due to the committee chairwoman no later than April 2 for delivery to the Regional Office of Education office by April 3.

The Educator of the Year Banquet will be held on Friday, May 8 at the Pheasant Run Mega Center in St. Charles. Consider supporting the candidates by attending the dinner. Ticket information will be available sometime in March or April.