• Marietta City Schools named Julie Pinto, a math teacher at Marietta High School, the system's 2016 Teacher of the Year. Dr. Emily Lembeck, MCS Superintendent, who made the announcement at the annual Teacher of the Year and Employee Awards Ceremony in late May, said, "Julie Pinto is very deserving of this recognition … She motivates her students to be better learners, inspires them to reach their highest potential, and encourages them to apply their knowledge in a meaningful way. Rose Wing Jr. presented the Rose Wing Teacher of Promise Award to Lanie Bakeberg, a teacher at Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, in memoriam to Rose Wing, who taught for 42 years at Marietta City Schools. The award established in 2013 recognizes young teachers with 2-5 years of teaching experience who embody the extraordinary ability and spirit that Wing brought to the profession. Other awards included the 2015 Customer Service Excellence Award presented to Hickory Hills Elementary School, and the Employee of the Year Award presented to Leon Grant, pre-engineering teacher at MHS.
• Ann Dodys is the Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016 at Warren T. Jackson Elementary School in Buckhead. She is the art specialist at Jackson, where she has taught for 12 of her 25 years teaching. A product of Atlanta Public Schools who attended Garden Hills Elementary School and North Fulton High School, she encourages creativity and displays students' artwork throughout the school at the annual Cultural Arts night. Ann is also a practicing artist whose work is being shown at the Quinlan gallery in Gainesville and Chastain Arts Center.
• Alex Waldron, a junior at Northgate High in Newnan, earned a top composite score of 36 on a recent ACT test. Alex is the son of Doug and Sherry Waldron. Matthew Reese, a junior at The Center for Advanced Studies magnet program at Wheeler High School, also got a perfect 36 on the ACT that was given in April. Wheeler's magnet program has had a student who made a perfect score on the ACT for the past three years. Nationally, on average, fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn the top score.
• Chantrise Sims-Holliman, an English teacher at Fulton County's Westlake High School, is one of 10 finalists for the 2015 Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice, which recognizes the most effective teachers working in high-poverty public schools. More than 5,000 teachers were nominated this year and nearly 800 submitted applications from 46 states and Washington, D.C. "Ms. Sims-Holliman sets the example that all students can learn at high levels, no matter their backgrounds or circumstances," said Superintendent Robert Avossa. The finalists were interviewed by an expert panel of judges in New York City before four were named the winners of $25,000 each. Six, including Sims-Holliman, will receive $1,000.
• Janel Gale, 17, a recent graduate of the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, has been awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship for 2015-16. Janel will study Arabic in Oman for the summer. She will attend the Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall, majoring in economics and international affairs. Janel is one of only 620 students selected from across the United States who will receive the scholarship to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, or Turkish overseas this year.
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