MS Coast middle school band director earns one of public education’s highest honors

Martha Sanchez
·2 min read

The awards keep rolling in for Louise Smith. She is the band director at Gautier Middle School. She is Mississippi’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

And now, a nonprofit from Washington D.C. has picked her for one of public education’s highest honors.

“I am really humbled to be recognized,” Smith said Thursday evening. “It’s exciting.”

An education philanthropy called the NEA Foundation announced Thursday that Smith and four other teachers from around the country will receive the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence. The award is announced annually, and this year it recognizes five educators who hail from Alaska to Gautier.

The NEA Foundation president Sara Sneed said the award honors educators who “represent the very best in public education and have made a significant impact not only in their schools but also on the educator profession.”

And it comes with $10,000.

Smith was nominated by the Mississippi Association of Educators and will receive the award next May. The ceremony will feature documentary films that show each recipient’s “impact inside and outside the classroom,” according to a news release.

Smith has driven Gautier Middle School bands to success for 22 years. Her students consistently earn praise for their performances, according to her Gautier Middle School online bio.

A panel chooses each winner based on five categories: classroom skills, equity and diversity, community engagement, professional development and how well the person advocates for the career of teaching.

The other winners this year are a social studies teacher from Naperville, Illinois, a K-8 teacher from Point Hope, Alaska, an English teacher from Indianapolis and an interventionist from Auburn, Alabama.

On Thursday evening, Smith was riding to Laurel with the Gautier High School band. In a phone interview from the band’s bus, she said the best moments of her job come from the kids, the concerts and the communities they play for.

“You see their eyes light up,” she said. “That’s always the best feeling in the world.”