Jerome School District and Jiffy Lube/Burton Group announce the Excellence in Education recipients for November 2022: Jefferson Elementary School Teacher Sharmy Steele; Jerome Middle School Teacher Jodi Pavkov; and Child Nutrition Department Secretary Francisca Peralta.
The Excellence in Education award recognizes the outstanding work by the staff in the district and schools. The Jerome School District Superintendent, along with a committee of representatives from each building, reviews nominations received by staff, parents, students and community members, and then each month selects 1 elementary certified, 1 secondary certified, and 1 classified staff member consisting of para-professionals, maintenance, food service, secretaries, to receive the award.
Guidelines for selection are:
Recipients must be a current employee of the Jerome School District; for Certified Nominations: recipient must hold a valid Idaho teacher or pupil personnel certificate; for Classified Nominations: recipient must be employed in any non-certified position;
Administrators are not eligible for this recognition;
Students, parents, administrators, or fellow staff members may nominate the individual;
The recognition is for those who go above and beyond in making difference in the life of an individual student or lives of a group of students.
The Excellence in Education Award recipients for November, 2022 are:
1. Elementary certified recipient: Sharmy Steele. With classroom experience of 2 years, Sharmy is teaching at Jefferson Elementary School but has years of music experience outside of the classroom. She was nominated by a parent with this nomination: Ms. Steele took over the Jefferson music teaching, and had a tough act to follow, she has done amazing things with the kids and their school programs. She makes all the students feel valued and loved. My own daughter who takes a while to warm up to adults, surprised me one day in a local store. She saw Ms. Steele and ran over and enveloped her in a hug, any teacher that creates that kind of connection and warmth and welcome to students, in my book is a great teacher. You can tell she truly cares about students and wants them to become better singers and musicians. Ms. Steele has made an amazing impact on my daughter and her school and that is why I am nominating her for this award.
2. Secondary certified recipient: Jodi Pavkov. As a Jerome Middle School Teacher, Jodi has taught for 25 years with 15 years in Jerome. She was nominated by two middle school teachers, with these comments: Jodi always goes above and beyond to help her students
and other staff. She teachers her students how to make decisions, plan events, and speak in front of peers and teachers alike. There is hardly a day that I can't find her well past office hours working in her classroom, or at the very least responding to emails. She always listens to concerns and questions from staff and students and does her best to try and find a solution. She takes initiative when problems arise. I have also seen her reach out to the ELA team and ask for assistance. She is always ready and willing to support other committees, departments, or extracurricular activities (such as sports and drama). Jodi is the English Language Arts department head, teaches 8th grade ELA and leadership classes. She is active in the community and the school. Jodi Pavkov works tirelessly to run a leadership group at Jerome Middle School. She puts countless additional hours into working with her students in order to make sure people are made to feel included and valued at our school. She is often the target of grumbling because you can't please everyone all of the time, yet she smiles and continues making extraordinary efforts to make everyone's school experience positive, inclusive, and fun!
3. Classified staff recipient: Francisca Peralta. As the secretary for the Jerome School District Food Services Department, Francisca has been employed with the district for 7 years. Francisca received the nomination from a co-worker which included this information:
Francisca is the rock that stabilizes the Food Service department. She goes above and
beyond for our staff, for our customers and day to day in her job. She maintains great
professionalism no matter the circumstance all while balancing 3 children and a full-time
college workload. It is vastly recognizable that Francisca has stepped up to fulfil her
workload as well as assist the Food Service Director while away on maternity leave.
Without her outstanding work in our department, Food Service would have several pitfalls.
We all know the challenges Food Service has faced this year with changing back to
charging for meals but Francisca has powered our department through with grace.
Francisca worked through the hardest time in our department with the director out of the
office. She has been playing the roll of secretary and director for the past two months,
which is the most critical time for the department and not an easy task. We have all seen
the bumps in the road but without her those would have been mountains in the road. She
has taken work home with her without question. Her family has come second for the past
few weeks and I would like to pay it back to her by giving her the recognition she deserves.
The Excellence in Education Award program began in 2016 and continues through the 2022-23 school year and has recognized the district’s outstanding teachers and classified staff each month, for a full list of award recipients contact the district office. The Jerome School District presents each recipient a plaque with a $50 gift card provided by Jiffy Lube/Burton Group at the monthly school board meetings.