Teacher honor may be morale buster

The State Office of Education is poised to shower a new Utah Teacher of the Year with gifts, trips and $1,000 cash — deserved recognition for an increasingly rough-and-tumble profession, some say.

But only half of Utah's 40 school districts bother to nominate educators for the award.

It's not that they don't have any good ones.

It's just that some leaders, particularly in smaller districts, view the award as more of a morale buster than booster.

"(Principals) just see it as a potential device to divide the teaching staff, recognizing one teacher over the other when they are all doing a good job," said Morgan Superintendent Ronald Wolff, who for years has unsuccessfully encouraged school leaders to submit names for the award.

The Utah Teacher of the Year contest is part of the National Teacher of the Year Program, created some 50 years ago to focus public attention on teaching excellence, according to the Council of Chief State School Officers, which oversees the project. Each April, the president of the United States announces the national winner, who then takes a year off teaching to be a globe-trotting spokesperson for the profession.

The State Office of Education will announce Utah's 2004-05 Teacher of the Year in a banquet Oct. 1. The winner will receive $1,000, trips to Dallas and Washington, D.C., a SMART Board and other prizes.

The perks could get even better: The State Board of Education might ask the Legislature for $10,000 to give to the state winner.

Some local teachers of the year also take home more than the proverbial tiara. Jordan School District is giving its teacher of the year $2,500, plus a $500 stipend for helping select next year's winner, spokeswoman Melinda Colton said. Murray's top teacher gets a plaque, a $150 check and a weekend's stay in a St. George condominium.

"I think that when we do that, we're recognizing the teaching profession as a whole," Murray Superintendent Richard Tranter said.

Murray is among 21 Utah school districts honoring teachers of the year, state and district officials report. The other 19 may have named teachers of the year but did not participate in time-consuming nominations for the state contest.