EDITORIAL: Congrats to Teacher of the Year finalists

Feb. 17—THUMBS UP to finalists for McAlester Public Schools Teacher of the Year.

MPS will host staff for a ceremony announcing this year's winner starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday at S. Arch Thompson Auditorium.

This annual event celebrates the great things happening in the McAlester school district and recognizes people who make it all happen.

Tim Collier, the MPS secondary academic design coordinator, leads the selection process with Elementary Academic Design Coordinator Prentice Redmon and said this year's process was stringent.

"It included a much more robust process to choose teachers, adding things like video, adding direct observations," Collier said. He thanked everyone for their feedback on the process on how to improve the system this year.

MPS Teacher of the Year finalists include Sarah Duff, Brooke Mason, Margaret Meadows, Troy Meadows, and Kimberli Suttles.

Duff is a 13-year educator in her 12th year at McAlester and teaches third-grade math and science at Emerson Elementary.

Mason is a cheer coach, and special education teacher and co-teaches fifth-grade reading at Parker Intermediate Center in her fifth year with McAlester.

Maggie Meadows teaches seventh- and eighth-grade math at Puterbaugh Middle School and is in her eighth year in education, all at McAlester.

Troy Meadows teaches eighth-grade history at Puterbaugh and in his fifth year in education, all at McAlester.

Suttles teaches biology and physiology at McAlester High School and is in her 17th year of teaching and her 10th with McAlester.

We applaud these teachers going above and beyond to serve students.

We thank teachers working every day to ensure a brighter future for our community with a solid education.

----THUMBS UP to everyone who recognized Primus Moore Day in McAlester.

Mayor John Browne declared Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, as Primus Moore Day in the city in honor of the late educator and community pillar.

Moore's family and friends gathered at City Hall as Browne read the proclamation declaring Primus Moore Day.

Moore graduated as class president in 1965 from L'Ouverture School, the public school for Black students in McAlester prior to integration with McAlester Public Schools in 1968. He worked in recent years with fellow L'Ouverture graduate Herbert Keith to help lead efforts to save and renovate the former school.

He worked at McAlester Public Schools for 39 years in a bevy of roles — classroom instructor, assistant principal, principal, director of Professional Development, instructor of adult education, music instructor at Parker and Jefferson, and science and math teacher.

Moore served in the U.S. Army Reserves, was a member of Anderson Grant American Legion Post 250, served as a reserve deputy for the Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office, and served the city of McAlester as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

We applaud recognizing the late community leader with a day in his honor.